Diana and I continuing the Brighton weekend without the children with me rather distracted, enjoying the food and events but rather disappointed by the demise of our Grand National choices and especially the demise of the handsome Grey, Dark Ivy, who had just won the ‘Best Turned Out’ prize for his mortified stable lass, Tracey Halstead. This as the Tory record on inner-city deprivation warranted scrutiny, IRA gunmen in Ballynahinch ambushed two policemen and violence disrupted a mass by the Pope in Santiago
A warm but comfortable night in the king sized bed of the Grand Hotel deluxe room. Slept in a little and then persuaded Di to get up for the task of making the morning drinks. Our toilette before going down to breakfast around 8.30am. We sat in the hotel’s conservatory overlooking the sea and were able to get a good view whilst being protected from the mist and rain of this early spring morning. We walked out after, along the sea front towards Hove and then up Sillwood Road Hill to join the west road and see the shops. In and out of several of them to dodge the rain and then morning coffee at a cafe in the new square, west of the clock tower. A good vantage point to see the shoppers bustling backwards and forwards. It is ‘Flag’ day for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and they were out in force, rattling their tins.
Someone else was offering promotional leaflets to a reluctant public. A busker played guitar and foot drums from a sitting position under a modern arch and had a puppet dangling from a bouncing rod to amuse the children, whose parents were thus trapped into donating money. We split up after coffee, but first went to Ladbrokes betting shop to put a total of £21 on seven horses in this afternoon’s Grand National. I walked around Brighton in the pouring rain, looking at antiques and bric-a-brac shops, but found nothing of interest. Met Di (who was late for a midday rendezvous) outside Wheelers seafood shop, but we walked along to ‘English’s Oyster Bar’ for a fine fish and seafood lunch. I followed crab/avocado salad with a half dozen oysters in mornay cream & cheese source and then finished with crème caramel. We were the first to eat, but the restaurant was full by the time we left. I found another table with an attractive brunette rather interesting to watch and, after Di and I walked back to the hotel in the rain, there was time before the big race to have a little one of our own. When the Grand National was run, all of our 7 horses either fell or did not finish in the first four. Out best chance, a grey called Dark Ivy, which won £100 for its Greystoke Castle, Cumbria, stable lass Tracey Halstead as the best turned out horse of the race, fell heavily at Beeches Brook after Attitude Adjuster baulked him and his neck was broken and he was killed, which was very sad. The TV coverage carefully avoided this aspect, which was less than honest of them. I then watched the end of a TV rugby union international, with England teaming up the form book to beat Scotland 21pts-12pts and read more of my books. Di returned at 5.00pm and dragged me reluctantly down to the hotel pool. Much quieter tonight, but a girl with a nice swimming suit and figure joined me up to the third floor in the lift afterwards and let herself into the room opposite! Time to relax, read and write before our dinner at 7.30pm. It was a dinner dance night tonight, though we hardly had the energy or enthusiasm to do anything other than eat. News today is of election fever building up, with opposition deputy leader, Roy Hattersley, making the running. Two Tory ministers, Peter Walker and Douglas Hurd, have spoken out in veiled criticism of the government’s own performance in combating the inner city dereliction and depression. If Thatcher loses the election, or if there is no overall majority, these two will be challenging for the Tory leadership. More spy scandals, with the Russians being the party continually accused of penetrating US and French security. France and the USSR are locked in a current round of mutual expulsions over spying into the Ariane rocket launch secrets. The Tory MP accused of making illegal and multiple British Telecom applications, Keith Best, has secured the support of his local Conservative Party Committee, ‘for the time being’. IRA gunmen at Ballynahinch, south of Belfast, killed one police constable and seriously wounded another in a gun ambush. A man and 2 children died in a motorway car accident in Somerset, after they plunged off the road and landed upside down in a ditch with 4/5 feet of water. Violence disrupted a mass by the Pope in Santiago, with youths throwing rocks at the police who then used water canon trying to control the crowd.
https://featurepacked.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/memory-makers-dark-ivy-1976-1987/