Another slow start to the day as I worked on my Council priorities before organising my newsletters for delivery this weekend and selecting some history photographs for processing into transparencies for my forthcoming talks. I also bought five large bales of peat to add to the sharp sand from yesterday as top dressing for my games lawn. A Cuban ambassador was expelled today for shooting an MI5 agent in the embassy incident yesterday, the SAS admit killing the IRA men but claimed they had to, the Ulster civil service head had his house demolished by bomb yesterday and the government is still at loggerheads with nurses. Hurricane Gilbert is bringing devastation the Cayman Islands with gusts up to 200 mph
After a late night, I was tired again this morning. For the second day running, I had breakfast in my dressing gown and had trouble getting down in time. This morning, with the children at school and Della at Rising Five’s, Diana cleared out Daniel’s room and I worked on at my Council work. Phone calls left right and sideways to pursue matters of the moment to organise my FOCUS Newsletters which are needed for delivery at the weekend. Later, after lunch, I also drove across to Willington and brought back five 200 L bales of peat to help with the top dressing of my games lawn. This afternoon, I sorted out photographs from my history of Little Paxton album for taking to the photographic processors tomorrow – they are to be turned into transparencies for the forthcoming history talks. More phone calls trying to get 1 or 2 ladies to serve on the Parish Council, lobbying Mrs Pearson to improve the Ernulf Pool booking system for children’s swimming lessons and then an interview with Julie Silverman, the Town Crier journalist who seemed short of copy.
Organisational phone calls with Bill Walston and John Matthewman about my newsletters and then to exchange information with Michael Pope. The county council has turned down the Diddington gravel proposal which was good enough for me to phone Ross Smith of Little Paxton’s planning committee and Pam Dodman as parish clerk of Southoe and Diddington. This evening I relaxed more and wrote up these past two days’ journal whilst watching a TV programme about Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile barrier. News today was of the Third Secretary and Ambassador at the Cuban Embassy being expelled from Britain after it turned out that someone was shot and injured in the process. Later today, against a mounting wave of criticism, it was revealed that it was an MI5 agent that was shot in a party of four that included a Cuban defector that the Third Secretary claimed was threatening him. In the Gibraltar inquest, the SAS soldiers gave evidence on the death of the three IRA men – they had definitely ‘shot to kill’ but claimed they thought that they were preventing the targets detonating a bomb by remote control. The house of the Head of the Ulster civil service was bombed this morning and completely destroyed. A settlement has been agreed in the Post Office strike but now the union branch officials have to agree the deal and return to work. Three black anti-apartheid campaigners have taken refuge in the US consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, and will be allowed to stay as they feel threatened by the Botha Government. There is a sharpening conflict between government and nursing union negotiators over the nurses pay settlement. The government wants only to recognise one nursing sister as being in charge of each ward, even when separate sisters cover different shifts and share equal responsibility. A much colder and more showery day today and we will soon have to lay up the swimming pool. In the Caribbean, Hurricane Gilbert with winds of 160 mph and gusts to 200 mph has now hit the Cayman Islands, killing 30 people as it lays its trail of flooding and devastation from island to island. This has been a poor year for weather excesses.