Off to Bedford and the auctions on another busy day for the builders and then to unload a stone sink and to tidy the gardens of building materials with me just surviving any further injury to my sore back before I worked on my troublesome video tapes. This as the hanging of Benjamin Moloise had brought universal condemnation and outrage in South Africa but still Thatcher holds out against supporting the international community’s condemnation and call for sanctions but her Majesty, the Queen hosts Commonwealth dignitaries aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia despite a squall of a totally different kind
Up to my morning tea and to lay down again afterwards, which I have taken to doing lately so as to ease my back. It has mended quite well in the last few days, but I still try to protect it as much as possible. Down to breakfast of toast and fruit juice, but orange to drink this morning; we have run out of apple as Di has not managed to do the shopping. Then a while reading the Investors Chronicle and FT before out to the doves and ducks. The birds were hungry this morning, the cooler nights mean they must eat more to stay warm. The builders were there early after 8.15am this morning. Six of them were bricklaying and assisting (in two pairs of two) and also demolishing more of the internal brickwork for building preparation. Then off to Bedford alone for the Peacocks auction and a long morning waiting for my lots to come up.
There were many other bidders there and I had some competition for the items that interested me. I bought an old stone sink that interested me for £30, but I did not get the large garden urns, which went for £280, which I thought was quite expensive. I rode off to the Happy Eater after, but the family had already finished their meal. We dropped off at Peacocks on the way back and Di and Dan helped load the heavy old sink onto the back of Di’s car, but poor Di trapped her finger and was very angry. After she left, Dan and I stayed for a little while drinking a coke and, for me, eating a piece of fried cod for my lunch. Home then and, with Gary, Dan and I, offload the sink into the garage and then move a host of planks and scaffold poles off of the new lawn and back onto a corner piece of garden that I agreed they should use. An odd twinge from my back during this process, but I seemed to survive without hurt. Then I cut down a few more tree branches on Bill’s plot and stripped them of foliage for the bonfire pile and left branches for cutting into logs for fuel. Then tea and after, I spent the evening editing videos of the Hayling View and writing up the contents for my summary file. This was a long and frustrating process because, not only did it deprive Diana of the TV for the evening, but it was also the case that my new video films were also becoming affected by unstable upper frames. I had thought that there was a fault with the Canon video, but now that the Sanyo is also affected, I know that it is the position of the video close to the TV that is leading to magnetic distortion of their recorded information. This is worrying as some of my archive tapes may be affected and I will have to investigate closely. News of the continued condemnation of the South African hanging and more riots and violent demonstrations take place. Even so, there is no agreement yet on sanctions, as Thatcher is alone preventing a compromise and other party politicians in the UK condemn her intransigence as acting against Britain’s popularity and interests. Even the ceremonial does not go too smoothly at the Commonwealth Conference as 15+ African and Asian leaders go on a boat trip to avoid demonstrators, but are delayed by a squall and arrive an hour and twenty minutes late for the Queen’s banquet and photo session aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia. The weather forecast is for more of the same.