Progress with carpet fitting , tiling and shopping as the doves survive on a milder but foggy day before we collect Daniel after school and enjoy our customary Happy Eater lunch before Daniel helps me restore his and Debbie’s bedroom at last but Diana is struggling with her diet, the dust, a heavy cold and her period! The news today is of the assassination in London of the exiled leader of a Seychelles party, Gerard Hoarau
A good night’s sleep and awake to my morning tea, which I now drink in bed as a trial. A brief glimpse at the paper and then down to breakfast of toast and fruit juice at our Ercol table in the breakfast room. A pleasant meal and we all appreciated the space and freedom it brings; even though the wind and dust still comes under the half inch gap beneath the door. Up to get washed and dressed and then over the hall debris to open the door opposite for workers access. Mr Evans and Cheeseborough arrive and take instructions to start the kitchen tiling and soon Brittains arrive as well to install Daniel’s new bedroom carpet, which looks superb. I had sorted out the underlay yesterday and they then trimmed the bottom of the door, put the gripfast around the edge and then laid the carpet on top, pushing the edges tight with the knee lever gripping tool. Out to the doves, who divide into two camps this morning. The old ones swoop down hungrily for their seed, but the new ones loiter inside their dovecote, apparently dissuaded at first by the very foggy and damp start to the day.
The weather is warming up and the warmer air running over the freezing ground creates thick banks of fog. Over to feed the ducks and, when I had finished, the new doves were ready to feed. The builders settled, we went off to Bedford so that Di could do some general shopping and I could visit the Peacocks auction and then look for some bathroom accessories. Nothing of note at Peacocks and so along to Gibbs and Dandy Gale and up to see their tile and bathroom ware. I found new blinds in the Bloomsbury pattern in matching rose white and bluebell white; and then ceramic tooth brush holders, towel rings and coat hooks in both colours as well, which is good to see Cristal the tile makers, Dulux the paint makers and the blind people all combining to produce matching ware. I also get two shower curtains to the same design and colour as well. Back to the car to meet and collect the others and on to St Neots to collect Daniel, so the family is all complete for our normal Happy Eater lunch at Sandy. Home after and the afternoon, with Daniel, sorting out Debbie’s old room, removing the dust from all of the items there, and setting up Daniel with his bed and pine furniture in his new bedroom. We also carried in his train set cabinet to free up the link building. Then to put a few of my office things into the cleaned room and carry across all manner of our possessions to be put in the wardrobes and cabinets of Daniel, Debbie and the guest room, which we are soon to use as our own. A break for tea and sausage rolls and then to work on until past our normal bedtime. Unhappily Diana is finding great hardship with the combined effects of her diet and the building works. She says that, having lost nearly a stone in weight, her eyes no longer fit her contact lenses, due to fluid loss and also the dust irritates her eyes as well. She cannot seem to see much with her glasses and is quite badly impaired with her sight. A heavy cold and period is not helping her either and the two girls, therefore, moan and compete for attention, with Di unable to handle it. I am sympathetic, but feel that she is not being as tolerant as she ought to be in this building process; being too sensitive to the cold and dust. After all you have to make the best of it, otherwise it will only get you down. No time to watch the TV tonight, but the main news seems to have been of the political assassination in London of an exiled leader of a Seychelles party, Gerard Hoarau, who had been openly committed to overthrowing the communist government there and was probably murdered by its leaders or sympathisers. It seems the Cabinet is about to change its mind over the abolition of SERPS after much critical comment; but will make an equally controversial decision in quitting from UNESCO and following the American lead. The weather is much milder today and gets warmer all the time. It is forecast to stay that way for a few days.