The day undertaking all manner of correspondence on private and council business, with a lunch break of crab and prawns shared with Debbie but a less successful dinner with Debbie and Della sent from the table for playing up. I phoned my mother and found her quite down and under the effects of this shingles attack and medicines, another IRA bomb wrecked an army coach, killing 8 soldiers and injuring 27 others which had the effect of bringing Thatcher back from her holiday to consider yet reject the question of internment and Holloway prison officers are back to working normally after settling their dispute
Rather slow to wake this morning, as the weather had turned fresher and chillier to discourage an early rising. A scamper to get ready for breakfast and only read a part of today’s paper as the girls wittered on and played up. Out to the doves, finding that somebody had thrown one of our border stones over the riverside garden railings overnight, shattering a paving stone, which is a pity. Got down to my paperwork today. This morning ordering my desk and then starting to type up several letters and other correspondence, which was to take all day. A long letter of three pages to object to 25 acres of housing development at Riversfield. A brief for the builders on my conservatory foundations. Several other letters on Council business and local affairs. My letter of claim to seek recompense for my Rolls Royce repairs. My work took all day and into the evening, and I still have my Redlands report to do, but I have at least started the process of getting up to date and feel better for it. A salad lunch of cracked crab and a prawn tea with Debbie sharing my plate of prawns.
The children were too bad at the table tonight and I sent both Deborah and Daniel down from the table with no pudding. Their behaviour has deteriorated lately and we had to have a bad mealtime to make the future ones better. Went out this evening to deliver my letters and was a bit distracted with the extent of development in St Neots, the parking of countless lorries on the roads of the industrial estates, and the contravention of planning application details in Bydand Lane. Mr Baxendale is justified in being upset about it and I must contact him. I telephoned my Mother today and found her quite depressed and under the effects of this shingles attack and medicines. The news today is of the aftermath of another IRA bomb that wrecked an army coach, killing 8 soldiers and injuring 27 others, as they were driven back to their barracks. Mrs Thatcher broke her holiday to chair an emergency security meeting at Downing Street and the question of internment was considered but rejected for the time being as being probably counterproductive in the PR battle for public support. Since the start of this year, 26 servicemen had been killed – more than in the last five years. At a Castle Donnington rock festival, two fans were crushed to their death as part of the 90,000 crowd surged forwards. Pakistan’s late President Zia was buried today at a very lavish and ceremonial funeral. He was interred at the world’s largest mosque at Islamabad. UN observers are now in place along the Iran/Iraq boarder and the ceasefire seems to have taken place smoothly. Officers at London’s women’s prison, Holloway, have agreed on settlement terms over the prisons dispute and police stations will thus also be liberated from the backlog of prisoners held in unsuitable conditions.