Daniel as a reluctant scholar
Daniel as a reluctant scholar

Time to catch up on reading after a bad night worrying about Daniel’s bike accident and then a closely supervised homework session with him later after pursuing my interest in my heraldry and garden temple ideas and before some time planting box shrubs as the diplomatic tit for tat continues with the Russians and Pay rises of 8 ½ % were offered to 1 ½ million local authority workers in defiance of government guidelines

A very bad night’s sleep, with mind active on my plans for the new riverside plots and also of concern over Daniel and his bicycle accident yesterday. He was not badly hurt, but it could have been worse. Up to get relief from the insomnia and then to manage a couple of hours sleep before waking to morning tea. I get up and sit on my bedroom chair to ease my aching back whilst reading the paper. This complaint has been worsening of late and I can only conclude that the stretching over my Hayling drawings for hours on end cause the problem. Up to a breakfast of toast and fruit juice and then a shower and hair wash to get me into a more lively mood. Dressed and out early to feed the doves. The stray dove has now tamed to the bird table and I almost managed to note his number (for I think he is a cock). To the office and a start to the day’s work.

I begin with a bank reconciliation, where I take account of all of our recent cheques and also ascertain that the Abbey National are wrong in trying to post a debit of £1000 to my account. Then several phone calls to reinforce my interest in the Temple from Crowthers, to make arrangements to collect my Patent from the College of Arms tomorrow and others. Diana brings coffee and then goes off shopping and I spend the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon reading a large backlog of Investors Chronicles, Economists and computer journals, which I was pleased to see the end of. Lunch of ham rolls with ice cream to follow and then back to my chores. By tea time I had written a synopsis of my speech for the Financial Times conference, but then broke off to supervise Daniel’s homework afterwards. It took a while of persistent review of his classwork today before he revealed and remembered his homework tasks, which I then made him do properly. He is in a temper tonight at not being allowed to have tea at Gary’s and to play afterwards, but I insist on his school work having priority and complete also some classwork. I also managed to plant the remaining Box plants before dusk and fed and put away the ducks. I type up my conference papers and then relax with the TV. News of another 6 expulsions announced by Sir Geoffrey Howe after discussions with Mrs Thatcher. The Russians will undoubtedly escalate the process and who knows where it will end. Pay rises of 8 ½ % were offered to 1 ½ million local authority workers, in spite of the government pay guidelines. 1,000 jobs are to go at the Scott Lithgow shipyard, in spite of its Trafalgar House takeover. Liverpool council are running out of cash and the unions blockade the Town Hall today to prevent them issuing redundancy notices.