_. Brief. To Ally's after the YP. She collected her pay cheque today and found a £200 tax rebate within. Speechless. We celebrated with a lasagne at Mamma Mia's on Manningham Lane. Ally beautiful with her hair tied up. On to the Bod, but didn't over do things. Home for 11.
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_. At 8pm Ally and I went out to the Drop, then the New Inn. Saw Susie, Janet, and Audrey, and little Biff. I do not like how Sue hangs around with these girls. Back to Pine Tops, quite merry, and watched Robin Day on the BBC.
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_. Ally collected me from the YP at 5. She had been into Leeds to renew a contract on something, but had messed the whole thing up. We went on to Guiseley for dinner with Mum and Dad and afterwards fell in front of the TV to watch another episode of D.H. Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers'. Papa came home in the midst of this with a sad tale. The baby of a local doctor was found dead in its cot this evening after spending a damp afternoon with its mother shopping in Leeds strapped to its mother in one of those ridiculous red-Indian-type baby carrying things. Dad says he found her quite dazed cradling the child.
Mum and Dad went to bed and Ally I sat whispering about the coming holocaust, namely our engagement.
Ode to Ronald Reagan
Ron and Nancy you're the best,
I've watched you on the telly,
You make me want to head out west,
But it's all so flat and smelly.
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_. Out of bed at 7. Worked very unenthusiastically, and paced up and down the office. Phoned Ally at 4 and spoke just for a few minutes. She is thinking about a honeymoon, definitely abroad, and we discussed the plot to cover our tracks on Saturday when we go see Ward at Esholt. All exciting stuff. If, or when asked about our visit to Winchester Jan 30-31, it is for Ally to have a fitting for her bridesmaid dress for Gill's wedding. I cannot wait to see the look on the faces at home when the news breaks. Hawksworth Laner will be reminiscent of VE Day in Trafalgar Square.
Both Sue and John phoned tonight. J is coming down from Scotland on Sunday to take Maria for her gynaecological x-ray, or whatever.
Royal New: Poor Lady Diana [Spencer] is back teaching at her kindgergarten whilst the Prince of Wales prepares for his annual Klosters visit with the Gloucesters. They go on Friday. Last week Lady D was spotted in Harrods purchasing items of fancy underwear, and laughed off the recognition with skill. John MacMurray has told Sarah that the permanent entourage of reporters camping outside Lady D's flat have all been captivated by her charm, good humour, and beauty. The girl is definitely Queen material. The prince would be a bloody fool to let her go.
News from the US: President Carter goes out of office and simultaneously the US hostages held in Iran were released after a captivity of 444 days. Four years ago I referred to Carter as 'a slug'. But now I admire him and feel profoundly sorry for the disasters and misfortunes that have dogged him. Ronald Wilson Reagan, who is 70 next month, becomes the 40th president. I am unsure about him. I won't call him a slug because I haven't seen much of him to attach any labels.
_. Historic day. Ally and I had breakfast together at 7. Giggling together over cups of tea. Dad joined us. I pushed her down the lane.
12:40pm: Ally phoned to say she had spoken to the Rev Calvin Ward, Vicar of Esholt, and booked an appointment for us to see him on Saturday evening at 7:30. The ball is rolling. Feel very elated. Why didn't we think of this sooner?
9pm: Phoned Ally. She was in bed with a book and sore throat. A luscious little chat. How can we remain silent until February?
Other news: The US hostages in Iran are to be freed soon. President Carter leaves office tomorrow.
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_. 2nd Sunday after Epiphany
Up at 11. We headed out to see the Stonehouse Inn with Mum, Dad, Sue, Pete, Margaret, Jim and Julie. We drove there and looked at it without going on [it wasn't the time to do so with Margaret]. I can picture it renovated, nestling there in the sun surrounded by umbrellas, bustling with hikers. I pray this will come off for Mum and Dad. To the Miner's Arms for lunch. Bleak, and pouring rain. I stopped for a wee in a field on the way back and we lost the others. We returned home via Leathley, Farnley, &c.
Back at Pine Tops Ally and I were interrogated mercilessly by the party re a possible wedding. Little do they know. One particular 'hairy' incident was when Jim and Margaret were discussing their pearl wedding anniversary, on June 30. Without thinking I immediately said that June 30 is a Tuesday. Jim's eyes glistened. He leapt upon it. Why have I been looking at the June '81 calendar?
Dad breathalysed all the party, just by way of a joke. I blew an alcohol-free bag as if I hadn't had a drop all day.
Tonight a momentous decision was made. The party disbanded at 9 and Mum and Dad retired at 10:30 and Ally and I took out a diary and decided to marry on June 27 at Esholt [my parish] because she doesn't like the look of Lidget Abbey [sic]. On January 30-31 we are going to Hampshire to seek parental approval and on Saturday February 7 we will go public. I'll tell Mum and Dad immediately on our return from Hampshire. How's that?
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_. Slept until lunchtime, but then erupted in a flurry of activity. I cleaned out the imitation log gas burning fire, and did the carpets with the vacuum cleaner. Ally washed her smalls and dried them in the new spin dryer. I even found time to split some spider plants and swept the leaves and litter from her slippery pathway. A real hive of industry, it was.
Home to Guiseley by 5pm to find Pine Tops deserted.Then Mum and Dad returned from a visit to the Stonehouse Inn at Thruscross, very enthusiastic about the place, saying that the owner, 87 year-old George Deakin, is considering selling the place and that Mum and Dad are his heir presumptives in the business. Great excitement.
At 8:30 we went with Sue and Pete to meet Lynn, Dave, Dave Allinson and the delightfully vulgar Elaine, at the Nunroyd, a new pub in Nunroyd Park, Guiseley. Not very nice. Certainly doomed to failure. All the yobs from Guiseley and Yeadon were 'casing the joint'. On to the Stone Trough at Rawdon [full of teenagers], and finally to the White Cross. Saw Mick Lynch and Carole, with a new boyfriend, a hairdresser. Back to Pine Tops with Sue and Pete for a drink. Watched a lousy film starring Sarah Miles.
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_. Didn't hear the alarm clock and woke up at 8. Unbelievably, I was at my desk at the YP at 8:50 looking well turned out, and efficient. However, by lunchtime I was exhausted. I put a couple of chairs together to make a makeshift hammock and sprawled out behind the filing cabinets [Africa: Zambia politics 17197], and slept for an hour emerging at 2:30 feeling bog-eyed and with a pulsating brain. Did no work and sat with my head in my hands.
Ally phoned to say she was leaving the AHA at 2:30 because of the snow. The girls quit the office at 4 and Ally came to the office at 4:30. I gave her some photo files to look at until 5:30 and then we went out into a blizzard to join Lynne Bateson at her leaving party in the Harrogate suite at the Wellesley. Joined by Peter Lazenby, Gavin Summers, Roy Holland, Nichola Gould, Stephanie Ferguson & Dave, &c. Put away a good deal of booze [again] but felt remarkably well considering I was so dead this afternoon. Ally got on like a house on fire with Pete and Roy. Somebody [the name escapes me] analysed by horoscope. Evidently, Pisces was in ascendant at the moment of my birth which dilutes some of the nastiness of Aries. What clap trap. On to an Indian restaurant on Eastgate with a party including a dreadful Jewish solicitor and his tarty wife. Ally was furious about her. The solicitor's wife took exception to Stephanie, for some reason, call it jealousy, and a slanging match, or battle of wits, ensued in which the indomitable Stephanie came out on top as one would expect. The bill in the restaurant was far too steep, and left me almost destitute. Ally gave a couple a lift to Roundhay and on we went to Club St, feeling tired, full and content.
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_. Kathleen put in an appearance today for 10 minuties in the afternoon and looked really shocking. She told us she is down to 8 stone, and resembles a Kampuchean refugee. She has been granted leave of absence by W.J. Austin-Clarke, and said goodbye knowing we won't be seeing her again until after her father's death, which could come any time. Sarah is left in charge and is far from happy with the situation because although she will have full powers she will not be receiving Kathleen's money. Trouble brewing here no doubt.
To Ally's at 6. She was scampering around in nothing but a towel looking very sexy, with her curls dripping wet. At 8 we went to a fish and chip shop and ate them sitting in the steamed up car watching the Bradford peasants frequenting the off-licence premises nearby. Why is it that very poor people, who can barely afford to feed themselves, always seem to have packs of Alsatian dogs, and canine half-breeds? Dogs, I think, are associated with the upper classes and the lower classes, but not those in the middle.
Onwards to the Drop where we over-did things with booze and frittered away over £7, which I can ill afford. We discussed the wedding and thought of going on to Oakwood Hall but returned to Rue Club instead and sat by the fire studying the calendar. June was suggested, and so was September, but July and August were not.
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_. Freezing rain which occasionally looks like snow. Frank Metcalfe, a weather expert, tells me that tomorrow 'it will snow like buggery'.
My alarm clock sounded at 6:50, and by 7:30 I was twiddling my thumbs, raring to go. I put through my morning alarm call to Ally and she took the traditional twenty minutes to struggle to the blower. She said it was the postman dropping a letter through her box that finally woke her, not the ringing telephone from her desperate lover 10 miles away.
Ronald Reagan is to be inaugurated US president next Tuesday. His friendship with Frank Sinatra could prove to be quite embarrassing because it's obvious that 'old blue eyes' is buried up to his neck in shady underground activities. Beleive it or not, I am now warming to this ageing old 'has been'. Carter was ineffectual and a bungler, and I think America is well rid. I did feel sad, nay -dismayed - in November, but it's January now. General Haig seems to be a decent chappie too. Someone who'll give the Iranians a kick in the sensitive area.
Ally came here at 7:30 and we watched 'Coronation Street'. Mum remarked that I must have been watching the programme all my life. It certainly feels like it. We glued photographs in a new album and reminisced about our last holiday and Sue & Pete's wedding.
Sue and Pete came to see Mum for ten minutes. She complained of feeling ill [again].
Afterwards I helped Ally insert her new earrings. She behaved as though it was a major operation. She had her ears pierced on Dec 1, and so the sleepers have had a good six weeks.
On the 9 o'clock news we heard that Lady Diana Spencer has joined the Prince of Wales at Sandringham for dinner tonight. The report claimed she went to Norfolk by train and was collected at the station before Sandringham by a member of the royal household. She'll be at the estate for two or three days. Is this it? It is interesting to note that the future King George VI proposed to Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon at Sandringham on January 13, 1923.
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_. Very cold. Biting in fact. Phoned Ally at 7:30 [I'd regained consciousness at 6:30 on hearing Dad making his way to bed after a 12 hour shift guarding prisoners at Otley].
The joke now, when talking to Ally is the colour of the bridesmaid dresses, i.e. the dresses for HER bridesmaids. Today it was lemon with white spots. This wedding talk seems so unreal. When will it be? Ally wants to name a date, but I don't think it's down to her. What about an engagement? I don't really think one is necessary, but to go without one altogether might not go down well in some quarters.
At the YP Kathleen has applied for indefinate leave of absence from her duties as chief librarian to look after her dying father who is lingering close to the abyss. Sarah is now ruler of all she surveys.
Tonight when Mum was heading off to bed and for the second night in succession she asked me how Ally can tolerate living on her own. I said: 'Oh, she's used to it'. She would like nothing better than to see us settled.
A foreign holiday this years seems lost and forgotten, and I don't give a damn. She looked at a house [£17,500] at Rawdon on her way home last night. Club Street is all very well but she is buying it with a Barclays bank loan [thanks to her Dad] and this cannot be converted into a mortgage because building societies do not give mortgages to properties without a back, side, or rear door. Don't ask me why, but this is the case. So, when we marry we might look for some other place to dwell, and in both our names of course.
Phoned Ally at 8. She's booked Hill Top Cottage, at Grassington, for February 6,7 and 8. Phoned Dave G to confirm his presence.
A warm, gentle day. Ally and I took off to town with Samuel at 1pm. We didn't take the pram and I carried baby for two hours, by the end...
