Another busy and dry day for the builders to work bricklaying walls and the chimney stack whilst I take Diana for a trip to Bedford with Della to choose Doulton lambethware and then tackle Daniel on his lack of interest in other school activities with threats of sanctions over Jason and his computer access. This, as South Africa decides to hang black poet/leader Benjamin Moloise and incenses the UN and the Commonwealth Leaders Conference but Thatcher still resists sanctions
Awake to my tea on a slightly more chilly morning and then I sit with the light on and curtains closed to catch up on yesterday’s paper and then start reading todays. It is now darker in the mornings. Down to breakfast and Daniel scrambles out rather late to only just catch his school bus. Two slices of toast this morning as a special treat because they were wafer thin! Out then with Della to feed the doves and ducks, collecting only one duck egg for our pains. I will have to use Della’s lead again as she wonders more and more. To the office for a little while to check for mail and my accounts and then back to take Diana off to Bedford to do some shopping. We first have a coffee together and then she has a look round the shops as I view the auction. A few things of interest – particularly an ancient stone sink and quite old pair of garden urns. Also a mahogany bed/back rest, made by a similar construction to my folding chairs. Lastly there was one extending oak table and, to my surprise, Di quite liked it and I shall return to bid for them tomorrow.
Lunch with Di at Debenhams and then a little look around the store. I looked again at the Doulton Lambethware and am further resolved on its suitability for us. We then dropped in at the auction rooms again for another peak at the goods and then home as Della starts to fret and want to get out and walk. The builders have moved on today. Two bricklayers and their assistants put up the rear connecting wall to window height and also the chimney stack to second floor level. They also prepare the walls ready for the plumber to come soon to reroute the boiler pipes. To my office after a cup of tea and the afternoon finishing off the updates to my investment summary – and starting to type the updated text into the computer. By the end of the afternoon I had made a good start on the latter. I took my valuable papers from the office as an afterthought, having had a fear that my possessions are a little vulnerable there. This afternoon the man from St Neots Carpet Company called to measure the two new bedrooms and confirm that the carpet Di ordered for the existing bedroom could also suit the bill. I am trying to get the builders to finish the rooms by the end of this month, so that they will be ready to put things in before we have to vacate the rooms above the kitchen. As darkness fell I fed and put away the ducks and then went in for tea with the family. The children misbehaving as usual at the tea table, which was quite a frustration. Later, I reprimanded Daniel for trying so little at so many aspects. He will not follow my advice in enrolling for the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme and still dilly-dallys over enrolling for two school societies. I leave him to think things over under probable threat of losing his computers and being banned from association with Jason Chambers, who is a bad influence. I light the fire in the lounge tonight as it is quite chilly, but nobody else wishes to join me in front of it. Diana slips away and avoids the argument and with it her half of the parental responsibility. News tonight of South Africa ignoring world appeals and going ahead with the hanging of a black leader. He had been convicted of murdering a police man, but he had denied it. Forecasts of violence as a result soon were fulfilled, as more rioting took place in the coloured townships. Commonwealth leaders in the Bahamas Conference were incensed by this development, but still Thatcher holds out in lone isolation against sanctions. Instead, an initiative is being set up to start negotiations going. The miners ballot in Nottingham has taken place and there is speculation that they have voted to withdraw from the NUM. The weather forecast to continue dry, which is good news for our building work.