Supervising multiple property projects from the balcony before my parents arrive and we enjoy a riverside barbecue and watch the hay harvest opposite as Reagan and Gorbachev agree to meet for arms talks, the US hostages return home and the IRA British resort bomb threat is assumed ended
Awake to my morning tea to the cooler dawn air and a chance to start updating my journal and read the paper. Down to breakfast of cereal and fruit juice and then quickly washed, shaved and showered so as to be ready for my morning’s commitments. By 8.30am out to the garden and to sit on a strategically placed steamer chair in the front so as to supervise movements to and from all three houses. At 10.00am, the USAF base housing inspector calls and supervises the letting, and Staff Sargent Ronald King and his ‘minder’ take it over. The gas and electricity people call. At No 7, the telephone engineer calls and properly installs my phone sockets, replacing the bodged job I had done in the meantime. I work on until lunch and then Diana comes back from town and we eat cheese rolls together, with ice cream to follow. After, I finish updating my journal, and then get on to the task of finding another speaker for the seminar next week. The landscape gardeners arrive and complete the first transfer of soil from the front garden (which was too high) to the riverside garden (which was too low). Time to read a few papers before my parents arrived on a visit at 4.00pm. We had a barbeque by the river and then sat and watched the cylindrical bailer harvest the hay field opposite and the wildlife until dark.
A fine and warm evening and more forecast for the next couple of days. I watched the end of the second test this morning and, although England bowled well and shook the Aussies, an Australian victory was always on the cards and eventually came to pass. Mum seems in reasonable health, but still a bit depressed, but they enjoyed the time by the river and will come earlier next time. I put away the ducks and then came in to the evening news. An announcement today that President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev will meet this October and former Foreign Minister, Gromyko, has now been appointed Soviet President. The US hostages are welcomed home by President Reagan amongst discussions of sanctions against the airport of Lebanon. The UK police now feel that the IRA British resort bombing campaign has been thwarted and no more bombs exist, but routine checks will still continue.