A quieter recover fay liaising with the builders this morning and then driving to Cambridge for some shopping and lunch at The Copper Kettle before coming home with a Christmas Tree and decorating it in our new lounge. This as the OPEC cartel’s decision to mirror North Sea Oil prices hits Sterling and the Westland helicopter company goes into administration but Thatcher refuses to lower interest rates and even threatens the Old Age Fuel Relief despite concerns for their safety. Concerns with regard to human rights in The Soviet Union and South Africa
Sound asleep until my morning drink and then groggy after last night’s excesses. Slowly to the bath and to get ready, but far too slow and the builders and decorators were with us before I was ready again. Breakfast and then to watch the plumber connect up a new radiator in the link building. Cheeseborough arrived and told me of his plans. His carpenter is still off sick with his bad back and so we will have to make do without him. Cheeseborough will fit some temporary doors to each end of the link downstairs, Evans will assist with putting in the door casing to the kitchen door and plastering around it after. The builder, John, will make good the floor and we still intend to be ready for the vinyl on Thursday/Friday. This agreed, I quickly fed the doves and then took off with Diana for a day’s shopping in Cambridge. We drove first to St Neots and, with Di waiting with Della in the car, I popped along to Brittains to take in Daniel’s curtain for alteration, to St Neots Carpet Co. to confirm the vinyl for Thursday/Friday and put off the carpet for the baby’s bedroom until later, and then to the Gateway Building Society to withdraw £100 in cash for our shopping needs.
Onwards to Cambridge and good fortune to find a 2 hr parking meter free near the centre. First to the Copper Kettle for coffee, but being too busy, we opted for Auntie’s coffee shop instead. Then to Robert Sayle, W H Smith, Cambridge Computer Store and other shops in a hectic 2 hr shopping spree. We bought a present for my nephew Chris, chose (but did not buy) presents for Diana and Daniel, and I ordered some intercom systems from Tandy. Tired and hungry, we risked the wroth of the Traffic Wardens by staying at the Copper Kettle half an hour for a lovely turkey lunch. In the end, a faulty meter showed us with 1 ½ hrs left anyway. On to Bar Hill to buy a lot of Christmas shopping from Tesco’s hypermarket and then around the corner to pick up Della from Di’s parents. Home to find the builders progressing to plan and I put the ducks away at dusk and we then had pork chop for tea. Then I brought in the Christmas tree and we all decorated it in our new lounge. After, to relax in our old lounge, watching Cagney & Lacey on TV and another late night catching up on my journal and the TV news. Legal history was made in the High Court today as two victims of a rapist were awarded damages against him for their injuries. But a controversy as the rapist himself was awarded more damages against the driver in the car accident that caused him mental damage and turned him into a rapist. The pound had another battering on the Foreign Exchanges today as the OPEC decision is fully evaluated. Thatcher ruled out any possibility of reducing interest rates, even though a lower pound would help manufacturing exports. Age Concern, the old people’s charity, is again worried about the welfare of pensioners during this winter’s cold weather, particularly due to the complexity and discouragement of DHSS guidelines over the policy for Old Age Fuel Relief. It is even expected that the government might withdraw heating allowances all together. In South Africa, the world-wide Civil Rights day was market by moderates speaking out against the harshness of apartheid. Film from the USSR shows the Sakharov’s are in ‘good health’, but also shows the extent of Russian KGB surveillance of them. The films were carefully edited to show the best possible effect. Journalists at the Telegraph are insisting on 3 independent Directors to help maintain editorial independence of their new Canadian owner, Conrad Black. Peace at the Daily Mirror, as Maxwell agreed new technology terms with the print unions. Shares in Westland, Britain’s only helicopter company, have been suspended and I hope a satisfactory outcome for the company will soon follow. The weather forecast is for warmer weather to spread across the country in the next few days, but the rain will die out overnight and lead to some dry weather later.