Myself to the St Ives auction with Diana going to Cambridge before home to see the builders’ progress and get Daniel’s help to dismantle and start moving my workshop. This as the first news emerges of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power accident in the Ukraine and also of the burial of the Duchess of Windsor and nationwide campaign of disruption by prison officers
An uncomfortable night, as the temperature was around 70degF and too warm for me to sleep satisfactorily. I was forced to take off my pyjama jacket and then dozed off. Awake to my morning tea and then down to breakfast a little early for the others. Boiled duck egg for me and the children, which we all enjoyed. Dressed in my working clothes, so that I was able to do a few odd jobs. I put up the white curtains on wires in the rear hall and utility room, fixed the new handle to the stable door and then fed the ducks and doves. Di having gone to Cambridge, I made myself a coffee and biscuits and went up and sat out on the southern balcony to read my morning mail and paper in some comfort. Kode shares had risen 7p to 143p yesterday. The sun is warm, but the airstream still very cool. Changed in a hurry and off in my Jaguar to St Ives for the antique auction.
Successfully bid for my three lots of interest; a pair of folding ebonised chairs for £40, an old oak gramophone and records for £30, and the two mahogany pot cupboards, which will make excellent bedside tables. Called it a day after that successful bidding and drove home, stopping at the pub in Offord Cluny for a pint of shandy and a ploughman’s lunch. Once home, I had hardly unloaded before Di got back from Cambridge and we began preparations for a record number of her afternoon guests. They sat out on some of my working folding chairs, as I tackled the new arrivals with woodworm fluid. After Daniel got back from school, I got him to help me to start taking the workshop apart. After tea we carried on until dark at 9.00pm and had removed the roof, partition, and most of three walls. The lawn mower people came today and fixed our lawnmower. The tiler had finished grouting the pool and now starts the tiling in the toilet and changing room, as we had arranged. News today is of the Soviet Union admitting that a disaster had hit the nuclear power station in the Ukraine. The USSR say that only 2 people have died, but western specialists monitoring radioactive fallout in Scandinavia have speculated that a ‘melt-down’ may have occurred, which would be the world’s largest nuclear accident. The Russians have asked for help from the West in how to tackle a fire in a radiator. Former accidents have been at 3 Mile Island in the US and in a fire in the UK. The Duchess of Windsor was buried today beside the Duke of Windsor, in a subdued and private ceremony. The suspension of prison officers in Gloucester has now led to a nationwide campaign of disruptive action by all prison officers in England, N Ireland and Wales. Israel claims to have held an Arabic terrorist group that assassinated Appleby, the British hostage in Beirut.