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We watch contractors today filling in the well on a much cooler and cloudier day and we start a huge bonfire and meet the Levy safe supply man before Charles and Norma arrive to babysit this afternoon whilst we went shopping but could not tell me much about their family Coat of Arms. News arrived that the BMMG Lan meeting had faltered through lack of interest such that they want my help and Gorbachev’s ‘Peace initiative’ has the Americans on the run but is a welcome relief to Europe and 3.35 million are unemployed in Britain, 75 of the population which prompts Labour to plan a minimum wage law!
A good sleep, but my back ache was still troubling me and as difficult as ever. I went down to shower in the hope that the warm water might ease the pain and whilst I was there I heard the cement lorry arrive and the labourers start to pile the concrete into the foundations, barrow by barrow. Up, dressed and to the doves. A very windy day today and dull, but the airstream was still quite warm. The doves braved the wind and came down to the table and fed fairly well. I then spent a while lighting and tending a bonfire on Bill’s plot. The recess had been more than filled with the excavated soil and it was beginning to cover the old foliage. Also the wind would help the harder stumps to burn and so it was a good time for the bonfire, even though it meant smoking out the neighbours! Diana was unhappy about it, but fortunately nobody complained. Then back to feed and let the ducks out and on to the office to do some work. I had barely started when I realised that I had a 10.30 appointment with the Levy safe salesman and so I doubled back to the house, changed and drank coffee.
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A windy day which was busy for me after a shopping trip to St Neots sketching and photographing the old well before contractors start filling in and building over it as Kinnock clashes with Scargill at the Labour Party Conference and Princess Anne visits Liverpool and Toxteth and Gorbachev meets Mitterrand in Paris and the death of film star Rock Hudson from Aids prompts the British blood fusion service o start testing donors
A good night’s sleep, but when I woke to my morning tea, my back was still rather painful – if a bit better than yesterday. Down to my toast and fruit juice with the family and then, hearing vehicles outside at 8.00am, I go out in my dressing gown to investigate. The skip contractor is changing the full skip for an empty one and there is a major delivery taking place of building materials. Cement and mortar, building and facing brackets, and concrete building blocks had all arrived. I helped sort out where to put them and then went back in for a shower, wash and to dress. Diana arrives back from taking Debbie to school and we start to do our chores. Della ‘helps’ me with the doves and ducks (only two eggs) but we then break off for a trip to St Neots. We start with a coffee in the rendezvous and then walk to Currys together to see the appliances. We decide on an upright fridge/freezer of British origin, but all of the microwave ovens seem to be Japanese. Then Diana does her shopping as I look around Shaws auction rooms.
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Warding off rabbits on a warm and close day with my bad back an issue before I order our £20,000 real oak kitchen before off to Ives for the antique auction and back for fish and chips on the front lawn as Neil Kinnock attacks the Liverpool Militants at his party conference and 300 youths riot in Toxteth. Elsewhere, Israeli jets attack the PLO in Tunisia, the fight between Lebanese factions demolishes Tripoli and anti-Nazi protests rage in Frankfurt
A restless night; very warm and close. It seems that we are getting the southerly airstream straight from Spain and the Mediterranean. A little time sitting in bed, but my back has taken a turn for the worse today. Up, dressed, breakfast, and then out to feed the doves. The gardener was spreading blue lawn fertiliser and bemoaning the activities of Marilyn’s rabbits again. I was out earlier, opening the premises for the workmen and I managed to hit one of them hard with a thrown stone before they ran away. The morning mail and plenty more computer magazines (I have a dozen or more to catch up on) and letters from the NEDO and Export IT trying to increase my involvement. Back home and just in time to meet the kitchen designer/salesman from Smallbone. There then followed a 3 hour session discussing our kitchen requirements, specifying and then costing a combination. It will be in real English oak for frames and doors, which is highly unusual in this day and age, but the cost will be equally unusual – well over £20,000, including fittings and appliances, which is the cost of a Jaguar!