With the family aboard Lady Martina
With the family aboard Lady Martina

Combining our boat trip with managing my investments by phone on another rainy day in St Ives as a marquee erector is swept away and killed in high winds, the journalist strikes spread and more miners are charged over Orgreave Plant demonstrations

A poor night with the baby keeping us awake for many hours of it. Torrential rain for most of it and we awoke to find it raining still, with gusty squalls of heavy rain to boot. Diana made the drinks and I helped look after Della in our normal routine. At 9.00am, I set off to the St Ives town centre and paid in our £2100) gilt-edged dividends cheque to the Gateway building society. Then to Ekins auction showroom, where I was pleased to find that the auction is indeed tomorrow. I bought a catalogue to study later. Then to use the call box and my telephone credit card to contact de Zoete & Bevan and, in two calls, establish that they had sold all 20,000 Barclays shares at the agreed price after all. Back at The Lady I had to look after Della for two long sessions. One for the rest of the morning whilst Di used the launderette and another, towards a late lunch, as she shopped around the Monday market.

I read my FT and watched England on the TV in the dual with the Australian batsmen. By the end of the day they had winkled out 4 of them, with 6 to go. Di brought back lunch and then we went to the St Ivo centre again to take the family swimming. More frolics with Daniel as usual, where I managed to duck him under a record number of times. Della was enjoying the water and Debbie swam even further without her arm bands and will soon be able to manage 10 metres for her next star. We trudged back even more wearily after, but at least the rain had stopped and we could enjoy the market. We fed the kids tea of bread and butter and then Diana & I went to Floods Wine Bar for our evening meal. A longish walk after and we saw all of the familiar sights in our favourite town. We talked as we walked and I explained how I had never understood some people and, in particular, how Diana’s brother Charlie had come to such a poor end when his father had owned a successful solicitors practice and graduated in law at Cambridge University. We returned to The Lady to find the children asleep. This evening I also topped The Lady’s engine up with oil (it was nearly empty) and then fitted the battery and temperature gages in more convenient positions. As we awaited the TV news, Diana re-read her novel ‘Sins of the Fathers’ as I caught up with my journal the rain re-started its continued fall as if it always will this summer. There were stories yesterday of freak accidents in the poor weather, with one poor man, who was erecting a marquis, being blown up and over the peak to fall to his death on the other side! News tonight of plans for the BBC governors to meet again on the Irish Documentary, as plans for Wednesday’s protest strike spread to ITN as well as BBC TV and Radio. At last the government have offered more money to the teachers following the longest ever teachers dispute. However, the teachers leaders were not impressed as the amount was inadequate and the conditions and terms unacceptable. 79 more miners charged with riotous assembly at the Orgreave Coal Plant have their cases dismissed today as the police withdraw the evidence. At the time of the miner’s strike, the miner’s claimed that there were widespread arrests and harsh bail conditions to prevent them effectively picketing. The US President Reagan admits today in a press conference that the nose skin sample was cancerous after all.