Pleased to be home with the normal family activities together and then off to St Ives for the auction to bid for some silver and mahogany lots and chat to the Buckden Marina manager about the Darlows selling up before back to organise the swimming pool contractor and video the building work as Lester Piggott retires after 38 years riding 4,500 winners and Zola Budd’s £90K race fee is revealed
A much better night’s sleep – there is no place like your own bed! The mornings are quite light now and I woke up at 7.00am and decided to make the morning drinks to get the family up. I served them in our bedroom and they sat in a row in our bed as we woke up and drank our drinks. As Daniel said, I like the family to be together and it was nice to start the day with a chat. Down to breakfast of toast and more tea and then I washed and dressed quickly, thinking to take some video pictures of the building work before the workmen arrived. Now that the clock has gone back there is no such opportunity to do that in the evenings and the day started sunny and bright. I wasn’t in time as they arrived at 8.15am and so I fed the doves and ducks and collected two eggs. I persuaded Di to bring the girls and we set off for St Ives Ekins antique auction, arriving just in time for the start at 10.00am.
I showed Di the rosewood veneered, mahogany wardrobe and dressing table, but she was not enthusiastic and so I did not bid for them. Coffee together and then I let the girls go shopping and viewed the lots again as the bidding progressed. I saw the manager of Buckden Marina and chatted a while. He was bidding under instructions for Mrs Darlow on a chaise-lounge and table and he was most uncomfortable with the idea. I advised him a little, which helped I think. It seems the Darlows are selling up Buckden Marina; one brother is retiring and the other buying a second large factory in Peterborough for their vegetable packing business. They have a buyer at £700,000+ for the 24 acre site, which includes £150,000+ for the house. I successfully bid £15 for a Victorian mahogany curtain pole and, later, £60 for another 6 SHDC tea spoons, 1838, in good condition. Home and there we met the swimming pool contractors, who looked again at the back garden and will draw up a suitable design and estimate, this time for an oval shape. I took the video pictures as the workmen took their afternoon tea and the carpenter has now finished the framework of all three balconies and you can now see the shape and levels of them. The plasterer had also finished off the guest room and box bedroom and had applied the foundation layer for Daniel’s room and the dining room. I then took Della on her trip round the garden as I put the ducks away. Tea and this evening I set up the video recorder in a different part of the room to avoid the tapes being contaminated. Then to struggle to write my journal with the TV on all evening. Lester Piggott retired from horse racing today after 38 years riding. News today of the government agreeing to hold a judicial and independent enquiry into the spy scandal. One of the victims claimed to have considered suicide twice during the interrogation and more details are emerging. The USSR have given permission for Sakarov’s wife to go abroad to Vienna for medical treatment. A price war has broken out in the packaged-holiday business, with 20%+ cuts in prices and week holidays in Spain for £25-30, which is ridiculous. The Liverpool Council is considering a new initiative to keep the city solvent without redundancies. There was a bus strike today with 70% out of action and cities even more congested than usual. The new miners union, the UDM, is recommending its members to accept the NCB pay offer, which has not been made to the NUM. A Bosses Union! It seems that Zola Budd received £90,000 for a recent race and the athletics authorities are up in arms. Prince Charles and Diana continue their Australian tour and take pleasure in soaking the press with a fountain opening.