Thursday June 26th

A weird day. I got up at nine because I had to let a gas man read the meter. I sat in the room reading the ‘Daily Express’ aimlessly till the above came, at about nine-forty-five. I was then racked with indecision over whether or not to go to Easterby or not. Mum had asked me last night to have my hair cropped today, and she left me some money, so I decided to go to Easterby and then to the barber’s on the way back. I wrote Dad a note telling him where I’d gone and got a red bus to William Street. From there I went straight to Praxis (where else?) where I spent a good hour.

I didn’t buy anything amazingly enough. This was because – and this sounds so ridiculous – the usual bloke serving on (with the Fidel type beard) wasn’t there. Instead was a long haired bloke who seemed arrogant almost – and a big Tommy Cooper type who came in shortly after me. I didn’t buy anything because in a way I would’ve felt so corny and so pseudo buying a copy of the “Wage, Labour and Capital” or the “Socialist Party and War” as I intended. I don’t know – it’d’ve just seemed shallow to him – and I would have felt it.

I went to Smith’s in Eastgate and bought a ring bound exercise book to do a book catalogue in (I wanted to start yesterday but I hadn’t any lined paper) which cost 48p.

It was raining when I came out of the Eastgate Centre, and because of the bus fare I decided to walk it back. Through Lodgehill I saw, to my horror, the Woodhead Park queer, stood by Lodgehill P.O. He nodded to me and I, so bloody polite to the last, smiled back. I should’ve given him the two fingers.

The weather deteriorated from then on and got downpour-style by the time I reached Moxthorpe. Because it was half-one, I decided to miss the barber’s because EGS would’ve ended while I was there. I didn’t want to have to walk back through the EGS plebs with a new head-shave!

Dad was playing some of his records when I got home (at quarter-to-two), and I spent the afternoon talking to him, about music, last nights prog. about the Broederbonds and just things in general. There are some days when I feel like discussing topics like that more than others – and today was one of them.

Mum rang at fiveish from her hair-dresser’s and Dad picked her up while I watched Wimbledon (another rain interrupted day).

In the evening I watched “Are you Being Served?” and then went up to play some records. I started my book catalogue and then went back down to watch an ace World About Us documentary about an expedition to an unexplored region of northern Borneo. Its been on before but it was absolutely superb. It was like another world – it made me want to take Biology in the 6th year and then go do something really rewarding and interesting like that.

After that it was back upstairs again until 10.15 and “Uncle Sam’s Backyard,” about Michael Manley’s Jamaica. He’s got a supposedly ‘socialist’ government (contradiction in terms) which, like all the others defies the object by having class and leaders. I admired Manley as a person though, because he refuses to compromise his politics for the sake of good relations with Big Brother America, who are terrified of another Cuba. He also attacked the interviewer for using the term ‘Marxist’ in almost a derogatory sense – he said that he admired what Marx said but he was not a Communist.

I came to bed at about 1150 after watching odious Russell Harty’s “All About Books.” Tomorrow I’ve got to have my head shaved and I also have this caving weekend meeting. Another exciting day!