Family trip to our favourite Cambridge refreshment haunts and bookshops before home to Daniel and Debbie for homework and stories and then back to my steamer chairs as a bomb explodes outside the Syrian Embassy whilst Thatcher is meeting the Israeli foreign minister and Kinnock demands the numbers behind planned Tory pensions reform
Groggily awake after my late night and to catch up on my journal this morning before reading today’s paper. Up for a duck egg breakfast and then back to finish the FT. Eventually, to the bathroom at 9.00am and late washed and dressed. To the office for 9.30am and some time trying to sort out my tax receipts, before realising how much of a problem I still had. Home for a coffee and then off with Diana to Cambridge, parking at the Round Church car park. To The Copper Kettle for our lunch of roast beef and funny to see the number of American, middle-aged tourists, milling with the traditional English Cambridge academic types. After, to visit the National Trust shop where I bought a host of small wooden toys, which were cheap, but very well made. Then to spend time in two book shops before visiting the antiquarian book shop, but do not buy anything from any of them.
I rendezvous with Diana in Belinda’s and enjoy an afternoon cup of tea. Back home and an hour in the office until 5.00pm sorting out more bills, this time for 39 Gordon Road, whose expenses will be set against my consultancy income. Back home to a prawn salad for tea at 5.00pm and then to use the stopping bought today to repair the woodworm holes in the steamer chair. As the filler dries, I start Daniel on his homework and read a story to Debbie. Out to sand the chair and add more stopping; in to check Daniel’s work and then the rest of the evening smoothing and then varnishing the chair. Although only one coat, seen in the fading light, it begins to look very good and I shall be pleased with the result. At dark, I put the ducks away and come in to the news. News tonight of the alarming trouble on the Isle of Wight, where a man is trapped in a well with the walls collapsed. It begins to seem as if he must have died, but there is still a chance of his survival in an air pocket and so they dig on. A bomb explodes outside the Syrian Embassy today, but without injury. The Israeli Foreign Minister met Mrs Thatcher at Downing Street today in talks described as, “brisk and lively exchanges,” as the diplomatic code for disagreement. Another row brewing in the Commons as Kinnock demands the figures for the social security review and the voluntary agencies step up their criticism. Rain storms are forecast for tomorrow.