Reading 1666 Pepys diaries and typing up investment letters, making plans for a half million pound CGT payment soon and being kept away from Diana’s visiting friend Linda as the builders work on noisily before a log fire this chilly evening and Willie Mandela condemns Thatcher as a ‘Fascist’ and the call for an inquiry into the City riots is rejected against the known wishes of the Price of Wales

A good night and chance in the morning to return to Pepys 1666 journals for the first time in a long while. Breakfast, a quick wash and shave, then a perambulation with Della, who has now become so mischievous that I have to lead her by the hand to get anywhere. To the office and this morning typing letters to a variety of financial contacts and advisors, as I get my investment affairs up to date. I have to make provision for a half million pounds capital gains tax demand within a month or two. Coffee, lunch and then back to it in the afternoon until after three, when I was just in time to rush into town and catch the bank before it closed. Also to drop off some papers for my accountant and then post my other letters that I generated today. Lastly, I dropped in on Shaw’s auction rooms and looked at the lots, but they were a load of rubbish and they seem to get worse. Home and I get some drinks for Diana and her friend Linda Richardson and chat to them a while. I am not really allowed to drop in on the blonde when she visits, because I find her too attractive, but when I gazed at her closely I could see that she is not really a true blonde, but dyes her hair.

When another friend joins them, I leave them for a while and complete my office work for the day. Today the builders finished the playroom French window brickwork and also removed lots of wallpaper and plaster from the inside. They also started to form the new kitchen window, drilling out the bricks from the outer course. Unhappily, none of these jobs are critical at the moment, but they seem to be waiting for the carpenter to finish the guest room balcony before forming the opening doors there. To add to the frustration, my observations seem to indicate that the carpenter has built the balcony frame two courses too high and I will have to query it with them in the morning. It seems very doubtful that we can go ahead next Wednesday with the carpeting of this bedroom, which is a pity. Tea with the children and then to feed and put away the ducks and water a few shrubs hard pressed by the lack of rain and the activities of the builders. Daniel and his friends painted the white dinghy red, blue and brown on the inside, but I had to tell him twice, the eventually show him, how to put the cover back on to Aquabean. Another clear and chilly evening and so lit the log fire tonight, which is always a pleasure. The Thatcher government ran into more criticism over their SA sanctions policy today. An opposition attack in the House of Commons failed, because of the government majority, but Winnie Mandela (wife of the jailed Nelson Mandela) condemns Thatcher as a fascist and of having no compassion for the oppressed blacks. She will come to rue the day! The government are also continuing to reject calls for a public enquiry on the inner-city riots after another vote of confidence by their MPs. The Prince of Wales is known to share the worries of many of the British on these matters and is quoted as saying he would not wish to become King with minorities so persecuted and underprivileged. He has called for a number of reports over the next six months or so.