Experiencing a few problems upon arriving back home and then to take Debbie horse-riding and a walk around Paxton Pits as the Queen Mum is admitted to hospital, The Head of MI5 is revealed as a Russian spy and the Tamil ‘boat people’ were smuggled from Hamburg where there have been arrests. US President Reagan now has both Houses of Congress supporting sanctions against South Africa as four blacks are shot there and Rolls Royce get the BA 747 engine order and 7 climbers are feared lost on the "K2 mountain”
A long lay in and needed to be quick to have breakfast and still be ready to let Joan in for cleaning at 9.00am. Out to the doves, where I find that two of the three latest chicks are lost to the cats and that somebody has thrown a rock from the footpath to break my shed window. Not an ideal homecoming. Got Daniel to help me clean out and commission the swimming pool, but was left to do it myself in the end, as he took off to find his friends.
Then into St Neots to do some building society transactions and get some more glass for the shed. Also put my shoes in for repair, with them being worn from all this walking. Lunch on my return of sausages and then I re-glazed the window, until it was time to take Debbie for her horse riding. She did more roadwork today (on Patchy) but I don’t think that she learns much from this. Home to more sausages for tea and then I took a walk around Lt Paxton gravel pits, seeing a green woodpecker and a heron, as well as three anglers land a large carp. Home at dark and, as Daniel’s friend Steve was still here, arranged for him to stay the night. An evening writing up these last two day’s journal. News today is of the Queen Mother being admitted to hospital in Aberdeen, after suffering from throat discomfort after eating fish. She had an operation in November 1982 to remove a fish bone and this could be a reoccurrence. Sir Roger Harris, formerly head of MI5, has been admitted by the agency to be a Russian agent in an Australian action to prevent publication of a book giving details, but the agency claims in this country that this lack of denial is only a legal device to avoid public questions. It is now revealed that the Tamil ‘boat people’ were smuggled across the Atlantic from Germany by freighter and Sri Lankans have been arrested in Hamburg for organising the operation to net £1/4 million. In the USA, the Senate is passing a tough South African Sanction Bill and, with Congress supporting an even tougher one, President Reagan may use the Presidential veto. In South Africa, four black ‘guerrillas’ were shot dead by the security forces and the country is still suppressed by censorship and arrests without trial. Rolls Royce has received a £600 million order from British Airways to equip a new Jumbo Jet fleet. A team of 7 climbers are feared lost and dead on the K2 Mountain in the Himalayas.