A trying and stressful day as we try to enjoy a normal life amongst the building mess and I end up with a shouting match with Diana and have to limit the number of Daniel’s friends that can visit us whilst we are thus but I do manage to clean out the house gutters and winterise our boats and my bad back survives the ordeal. This as The Prince and Princess of Wales are interviewed and violence continues in South Africa with more deaths and no sign of Thatcher relenting
A fair lay in this morning before woken to morning tea after which I lay to rest my back again. A little stiff from yesterday’s exertions, but otherwise OK. A rather restless night as I am catching a cold and having trouble both breathing and regulating my temperature. Down to a nice fried breakfast and then to read the Sunday Times whilst sitting in the kitchen chair for the warmth and comfort that it brings. Soon the house invasion by the children’s friends begins, but I limit each of them to one visitor at a time during the house alterations. A bit of a row follows as Daniel opts eventually for Paul to come in and play with the Commodore computer, whilst he leaves Jason Chambers outside. I get washed and then quickly out to do the ducks and doves, as by now it is 10.30am. Only one egg today, after two yesterday. In a misunderstanding with Diana we end up arguing in the street and I shout at her, which is most uncharacteristic. We will be better when the house alterations are complete and the furnishings chosen, as we have much on our minds at the moment. A sunny, but cool day, and this anticyclonic weather continues and seems set for a few more good building days yet. This is good as we are expecting the carpenters to begin this week to build the balconies and link building floor. This morning I organised Daniel and three friends to first pull his day-boat up the slipway and put the engine in the workshop and an old cover on it to keep the rain off, and then to put the winter cover on The Lady.
It may be early in the year to write off the cruising season, but we are away next weekend and, after a long dry period, the boats are ideally conditioned to be layed up. Just finished in time for lunch and, despite their protestations, we sent Daniel’s friends packing and settled down to a nice lunch of roast pork and Diana’s speciality sweets to follow. This afternoon, I borrowed the builders extending ladder and cleared out the gutters. Most of them were full and blocked with leaves and seedpods from the nearby trees. Then I took down two house-martin nests (one real one and one artificial) and also the burglar alarm bell box, so as to reorganise their positions when our alterations are complete. Then tea of various tidbits and then after, to catch up on these last two day’s journal. Also on the TV some novel coverage of an interview with the Prince & Princess of Wales, where they answer all manner of quite personal and revealing questions quite naturally and frankly. In the negotiations over South African sanctions, no solution is yet at hand and Thatcher still holds out like a stubborn King Canute. In South Africa itself, three more die in continued riots as the troubles continue. The Liverpool councillors call off plans for mass staff redundancies after continued pressure from the unions. The weather forecast is for more dry and sunny weather, but we could get a touch of frost soon.