Another late start on a cooler, rainy day and to receive many phone calls to progress affairs of which one could end my swimming pool dispute before we receive a visit from Di’s mother who intends to down-size their house and then a better sessions with Dan and Debs after an afternoon completing my Paxton Hall book section. The Soviet reforms make the headlines with Jewish demonstrators being tolerated, but back home Special Branch are now hassling the ITN news office, Thatcher unfairly distributes the new working Peers appointments to exclude the SDP and Liberals and the Stock Exchange starts to do well and then more insider trading revelations limit this advance
To bed very late, watching sport on the television and a couple of breaks in my night’s sleep. Still deep in the land of ‘Nod’ when woken with my morning tea and sat in bed for a while, feeling rather groggy. It transpired that Diana had laid in too long and we were all rather late. Still, the rest of the family made it to the breakfast table ready for the start to the day, but I was only dressed in my pyjamas! Showered and shaved afterwards and then straight down to my work in the office. I had set myself the task of completing the chapter on Paxton Hall and the Reynolds today. Had phone calls today from NEDO, that wanted to know where the BMMG were (!); Marshalls about the Daimler approaching readiness; Vinters about my proposed litigation and Salvadori from Elm Leisure, offering a belated olive branch over the pool boiler row. He has contacted me only just in time, as my litigation brief is already with Vinters. Di and Della had their morning drinks with me in my office and then Di’s mother arrived for lunch. She is full of yet more plans to move to a ‘cheaper’ house, but I am sure they will pay far more in removal expenses, legal and estate agents costs – let alone furnishings – than they can possibly hope to save in lower rates bills.
The afternoon at it again and then Debbie and Daniel arrive home from school and I go through the range of work with both of them. Debbie ends up tired and goes sound asleep, but Daniel has more energy today, though his toe is still painful. This evening, after tending to the ducks/doves and eating my tea, I made my way through the local papers and update my modern Little Paxton scrap book, before putting all items away in the fire safe. I had managed to finish the section on Paxton Hall, but there is so much more to do in the other chapters and all has to be printed out! The news is full of the latest Russian reforms, with demonstrations in support of the cause to get Jewish dissidents released and allowed to emigrate. This phenomena has been difficult for the police, who only reluctantly allow the demonstrations to proceed. For the second day running, relief workers have been unable to reach Palestinian refugee camps in the Lebanon and the starving people are reduced to eating cats and dogs in their desperation. In another police chase, two policewomen came under fire from a man, armed with a shot gun, and he then apparently shot himself at the end of a car chase, after driving off in the policewomen’s panda car. Unemployment figures went up last month and the underlying trend stayed roughly level. Vacancies are up, but for craftsmen, whose jobs cannot be met by the pool of unemployed. The Special Branch have tried to obtain a copy of the BBC Zircon film that has ended up in the hands of the ITN news office, but they are taking legal advice before responding. Thatcher has infuriated Alliance political leaders, by announcing a number of new working Peers for the House of Lords for both Conservatives and Labour, but appointing none for the SDP or Liberals. They accuse her of base partisanship and of making no attempt to be fair, as the Prime Minister should be. Problems still persist between BT and the technicians, as thousands walk out in protest at management’s action in trying to make union members work extra hours to clear the backlog. The Stock Exchange has hit record valuation levels in recent days, but today the indexes fell as rumours spread of a forthcoming Observer article, with more revelations of insider and illegal share dealing during takeover bids. In the US today, three men are arrested for insider dealing. A cooler day, with fine, misty rain.