Some time working outside on a better day with Pete on the paving stones and lawns but Aquabean is hung up as the flood subsides. 22 Libyan students are expelled as a British businessman is killed by terrorists in France, an American is shot in The Yemen and six soldiers are killed by a car bomb in Spain
A warm night, having had all of our heating on last night. We had our new bedroom window open for the first time. I chased Di out of the en-suite as she was a bit late and this lead to same bad humour on both sides. Down to breakfast of boiled egg and apple juice and then dressed in working clothes for an hour in the garden. I helped Pete to carry a couple of paving stones down to form the new step and then leveled the timbers for the workshop base, tapping down some with a sledge hammer and packing some others up with clay. Pete arrived to cut the grass and continued to do so, even though it was rather too wet. Off then to Bedford with Di and Della, arriving for our normal routine of coffee then Peacocks, before Debenhams for lunch.
We looked at cylinder vacuum cleaners, but came to no serious conclusions. Home via Eaton Socon filling station for petrol – one of the few remaining service stations, rather than self-serve. Di had bought me a pair each of corduroy trousers and jeans and I then tried them on, but they did not fit and will have to be changed. Out to the riverside to start the long process of emptying the workshop/shed. I did this until dark, after helping Daniel with his schoolwork. He did not do his work very well again today and is in the doghouse. His boat is still under water, but should be recovered tomorrow. In to lock up, put the alarm on and to settle to TV news & snooker. The 22 Libyan students, selected for expulsion by the Government, left Britain today. It is also clear that a large number of Libyan trainee pilots and aircraft engineers will be disallowed access to aeroplanes and thus deprived of their training in the UK. A British businessman has been killed by terrorists in France and the crime has been claimed by an Arabic group in retaliation for the Libyan bombing. He was a MD of an American subsidiary of Black & Decker. An American Diplomat has also been shot in the Yemen. In Spain, 6 soldiers were killed by a car bomb, after being relieved from guarding the Italian Embassy and Basque extremists are suspected. Mark Thatcher, Mrs Thatcher’s son, is being guarded by a special security exercise in the US. The man who defrauded people of 100s of thousands of pounds by claiming he was possessed by the devil and needed money to escape, was jailed for 7 years and fined £50,000. Two Bills in the Commons to improve the televisions coverage by obscenity laws and ban nude women from newspapers, were talked out of the House of Commons today. The weather was sunny this afternoon, after a shower, and continued warm into the evening. The forecast tomorrow is for a clear morning, but rain will creep in later.