Monday September 14, 1981

 _. Boiled eggs. To the YP. 

News: The prime minister has sacked the Cabinet 'wets'. [James] Prior goes to Northern Ireland as secretary of state where I suppose Mrs T hopes he'll be bombed. Sir Ian Gilmour returns to the 'back benches' as does Mark Carlisle. Lord Soames is out and Lord Thorneycroft has been put out to retirement. [Norman] Tebbit is now Employment secretary, and a lady, Baroness Young, becomes Leader of the House of Lords. Is this a first?

The horrid boy who fired blank shots at the Queen in June has been jailed for 5 years. Khalid Aziz has been sacked from 'Nationwide'.

Phoned John and Maria to confirm our visit to Lochans on Sept 25. Phoned Lynn, and then Sue, but it was much too late to speak to her. She's always in bed at 9.

We had left over roast chicken and salad and polished off the Riesling. Alison to bed with Agatha Christie. She's book mad.

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Sunday September 13, 1981

 _. 13th Sunday after Trinity

We had a restless night. Ally wasn't comfortable. We were up at 8:30. 

Phoned Lynn. Frances is to be christened on October 4 at Burley. The vicar has requested that all godparents should preferably be confirmed. None of us are. She says Chris Ratcliffe is going to Scotland on Sept 25, and thinks we shouldn't go. I say we should, and will phone Maria tomorrow. Mum is having Sue & Pete for lunch.

Ally made scrambled eggs and then put a chicken in the pot. She is bursting with activity. 

We drove to Pudsey at 2. Wilsby was deserted and so was Jill's at Valley Rd, so we phoned Mum to be told the Gadsbys were at at Pudsey St Lawrence Cricket Club's Donkey Derby. A village affair. We went along an I won £2.50 on a donkey. We sat on the damp lawn and had ice cream. Karen, Steve, Jill, Tim, Diane, Paul, and Marlene and the children. Then back to Wilsby until 9. By 9:30 were were at home. I was pissed. Had roast chicken washed down with Riesling. Watched Robert Hardy as Churchill, then plunged into a bath. Bed at 12.

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Saturday September 12, 1981

Harrogate: 1981

 _. Up at 8:30 raring to go. In Harrogate for 10:30. Ally looking for a dress for Jill & Tim's wedding. We had a frustrating hour without success. She saw a pink silk suit costing £70, but didn't buy. Most of the mannequins were dressed in 'Lady Di' style, and all the shops were the same, apparently. So, from Harrogate we drove to York where she found a pink dress covered in white tulips, and for only £11 at a shop called Sarah Coggles. Very sexy.

In York we went into the wrong pub, which was rough, and had cold steak and kidney pie, and vowed never to eat out in York again. We have yet to find a decent pub in the centre of York. The locals were alien and looked to be part of the criminal fraternity. Pagan in fact. Heavy tattoos, &c. And even the women looked like rugby prop forwards. Ally, bless her, asked if the large building dominating the city was the 'cathedral'. I just gave her a black look. 

On to Leeds and the shops. Bought nothing. Home with aching feet. Out at 7 to a run-down wine bar and then Pizzeria Mama Mia's on Manningham Lane for scampi and lasagne. Ally had a corn on the cob which oozed over her frock. Home at 9:30.

Dame Edna on the telly. Hilarious. A good day.

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Friday September 11, 1981

_. Marlene 36. YP. Penny Austin-Clarke accused me of 'sciving' yesterday. Some people are very perceptive, aren't they?

The Alexandra.

Spoke to Ally briefly. We decided to go out tonight. By 7 we were at the Alexandra in Harrogate [a Berni Inn]. T-bone steaks. Very romantic. We walked around Harrogate afterwards and decided to come back to the shops tomorrow. Whatever became of the Damn Yankee? I couldn't find it anywhere.

Home at 11.

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Thursday September 10, 1981

 _. Woke at 5am, then 6, and finally at 7. Ally went off to the AHA leaving me with the washing up. A sunny morning and I went out armed with a brush and bucket of soapy water to give the windows a going over. The woman two doors down was casting admiring glances at my wash leather. 

Spoke to Lynn. They dined at Salvo's last night [Headingley] and had a drink at the Fox & Hounds in Bramhope.

Ally came in at 11:30 __________________.

I sat this afternoon drinking coffee and reading the Daily Telegraph to the backdrop of moronic Radio One. Still reading Fraser's Charles II. Ally was home at 5 and at 6 we went to Mum's for roast beef, Yorkshire pudding. Mum picked some wedding photos for her album. Margaret and Jim came at 9 and we left at about 11.

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Wednesday September 9, 1981

 _. Lynn and David married three years ago today and we have forgotten to post a card of congratulations. Went off to the YP leaving Ally, looking pale, who is going to see a doctor.

Lynn.

I had a bad head all afternoon and felt sick. Feel as though I've been up all night. Lynn has been shopping in Leeds, getting things for Jill's wedding, and then lunching with David, and she appeared at the office at about 2 and I escorted her to a bus stop on Wellington Street. Saw the amiable tart Pam at the bus stop who said Shazzo was due home from Turkey last week, but never arrived. Mrs Cohen, Shazzo's mum, is in hospital again.

Home at 6. She is sick of being harassed by Derek Jenkins. She thinks he's insane. Spaghetti. 

Bed at 9:30.

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Tuesday September 8, 1981

 _. Three months married is an exciting time.  ______________.

YP: Did some background for Bob [Cockroft] and the People column. Lady Feversham gave birth to a son in York on Sunday, and Charles Forbes Adam, a grandson of a former YP chairman, is engaged. quite mundane really.

Spoke to Derek Jenkins [Ally was out of the office], and he didn't bother to tell her I'd phoned. Phoned Mum. They were at Hilda and Tony's last night and I was reminded the night of hideous drinking in celebration of the coming nuptials of Jill & Tim is almost upon us. May God see us safely through the ordeal. 

Greatest Aussie lady.

Saw Dame Edna [Everage] interviewed on Nationwide. Surely the greatest Australian lady of all time?

Michael Foot on the news making a heart-rending speech calling for party unity, and as usual he had to mention Aneurin Bevan. He always does. His oratory won't do a blind bit of good. Wedgwood Benn will take the leadership even if it takes him 20 years. I cannot wait for that to happen because who on earth would vote Labour with that buffoon in charge?

Mrs Thatcher has been at Balmoral. The prime minister goes every year in August for a weekend as the Queen's guest, but the word from the heather is that Mrs T is there to brief HM on her coming Cabinet changes. What rot. The re-shuffle might never come.

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Monday September 7, 1981

 _. Dull, overcast, hot. The Prince and Princess of Wales are grinning on the front pages of today's newspapers apparently giggling through the national anthem at the Braemar Games where the Queen told them to cool it. 

Phoned Ally. She's feeling peculiar __________. Later, she phoned Lynn to ask if they fancy going to Stranraer for John's birthday. The Bakers cannot decide. Auntie Joan, Bessie's sister, phoned saying we haven't received a wedding present and ought she to post it? This causes some feelings of guilt. We really should go to Colne. 

Ally is crossed legged on the floor reading Daphne Du Maurier's 'Jamaica Inn'. She says it's 'spooky'.

News: Alec Waugh, brother of Evelyn, is dead. Bed at 11. Ally had gone at 9:30.

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Sunday September 6, 1981

 _. 12th Sunday after Trinity

Up at 9:30. Ally brought tea and toast to bed. Afterwards I painted the hooks holding the picture frames on the bedroom wall. They were annoying me.

I sat reading Charles II [Antonia Fraser]. Ally cooked a massive lunch, brisket, cauliflower cheese, &c. Afterwards, before 4:30, we went to bed, in the glow of a pink lamp. Tony Blackburn on the radio, very annoying, and afterwards we watched, whilst still abed, a film about the widow of an assassinated U.S president marrying a Greek shipping billionaire and living happily ever after. Of course it couldn't ever happen in real life. Watched part one of a Churchill drama with Robert Hardy playing Winston and Sian Phillips as Clemmie. Quite good.

Mum phoned to ask how the wedding went. Auntie Delia phoned. I'll give you the details tomorrow.

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Saturday September 5, 1981

 _. Extremely hot. Ally went off to Catherine's at 10:30 and I made my way to St Cuthbert's Church at Heaton, at 11:30, and sat alone in the church. 

It was my first experience of a Roman Catholic wedding and Mass. Bridesmaid Ally looked like a peach, and I got a smile from her as she passed down the aisle following Miss Brook. Hard to believe she had been up most of the night supping with her in-laws. Roman Catholicism is so unwholesome. It looks fine in Turin or Castel Gandolfo, but seems a little out of place in Bradford. 

We prayed for Pope John Paul. I do not object to that - he's a likeable old stick. The Irish priest went on and on, but at about 1pm Ally [clutching her bouquet] and I were taken away in something like a Peugeot to Steeton and the Currergate Hotel. Hot there and no good really because Ally was on the top table and I was with a party of comedians. Occasionally I caught Ally's eye and we beamed. I was partnered with a Miss Binns, in a pretty blue frock, who, because of the heat, became faint, and escaped to the garden, leaving her turkey sitting on the table. Sweat poured off me. A vast 'wedding breakfast' consisted of asparagus soup, a fish in mushroom sauce, then roast turkey followed by a fruit salad.

The Curregate Hotel.

We had drinks in the garden afterwards and declined an invitation to an after party in Riddlesden, and came home at 6:30. Sue and Pete were there waiting for us. Sue is bigger, of course, but well. Peter was great fun. We went to the Reservoir pub on Daisy Hill, and then to fish and chip shop [for the Nasons, not for us], and then to Mucky Willies. Sue wants to call the baby Benjamin, but Peter doesn't approve. She is also fond of the name Paul, or Katie or Clare for a girl. We were home by 10pm. In two hours we had only managed 2 drinks.

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Friday September 4, 1981

Mum and Dad.

 _. Ally is just taking a photo of me as I write this, flat on the floor, fountain pen in hand. The film in the camera, she says, needs 'using up'. 

A peaceful day at the YP thanks to the absence of 'Mrs Slocombe', who has gone on a European tour with her boyfriend, the 58 year-old ex-president Jimmy Carter look-alike, Mike. Kathleen working 5pm-12. 

Home at 6. Mum and Dad came here at 8 and stayed until after 3am. A very successful meeting. Dad went over the road to the Corner shop and came back with a bottle of gin and orange juice. I carried up chilled bottles of lager from the cellar. Don Cortez wine, and some of Dad's home-made wine completed the damp repast. We had prawns to start, then lamb chops [for which I have a passion], and a big salad. Cheesecake afterwards. Mum hit the piano and played Debussy's Clair de Lune, and Ally amused us with a quaint old piece. We sank some booze. Mum told us tales from north of the border _______.JPH keeps breaking Alec Clanachan's windows, just for fun, and Maria isn't eating. John says 'she's smoking instead'. Maria's friend from the village, Denise, is now living in their caravan at Lochans. Dad fell asleep after 12 and the three of us sat until 3 nibbling at the cheese. After they left Ally went off to bed and I did the washing up until 5am.

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