Thank you for the Donkey, and for the diary suggestions - must be 'great minds' or something, because we've eventually hit on these, so we agree with you.
However, we're still puzzling about
THEY'RE LINKED WITH WRIST AND NECKWEAR (7 letters) and
ACTIONS THAT SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS (8 letters) so if your brilliant insight can flash an Eureka answer to these we'd be very grateful. Happy Christmas to both of you.