Working outside in The Hayling View gardens with first Della and then Daniel doing shores on a cooler day and then watching Britain’s success in the European Athletics Championship whilst it rained later after which Daniel had Steve over to swim, Diana took Debbie to the Care Bear movie and I was collecting earthworms from the lawn for bait after dark! Thatcher and Tebbit returned to Brighton for the re-opening of The Grand Hotel, as the Irish nationalists bombed two police stations and threatened to bomb others
Awoke twice in the night, feeling stuffy with the window closed and then noticed the light of the dawn. Showered and shaved for breakfast of boiled egg, which was rather hard for the children. Out with Della to feed the doves, as she took a swing and liked to be pushed really high. Then got a reluctant Daniel to help me clean out the pool and chop up some logs for our stock. His friend Steve arrived and saved him from some of the latter. Then I tackled a range of outside jobs on a clear, but damp and cool morning. I marked out and arranged the riverside paving stones in a line to indicate the edge of the games lawn that I am planning.
Then a hard physical job sweeping our drive clean and shoveling up a full wheel barrow load of grit, sand and cement dust that I obtained as a result of it. In to lunch of salad then, after a rest looking at the news and business news on CEEFAX, more work cleaning out the duck house and replacing the straw. The rest of the afternoon and evening watching the European Athletics. Daley Thompson had a mammoth struggle with his two big West German rivals in the decathlon, but won through in the end, in spite of a hostile crowd. Britain took gold, silver and bronze in the 800 metres, with Sebastian Coe winning at Steve Cram’s expense. Fatima Whitbread threw a world record javelin in the qualifying heats and has to start again tomorrow in the final. Britain now stand 2nd in the table behind the East Germans. A struggle in the dark after to put away the ducks and then I went on the lawns with a torch and caught earthworms for bait after today’s rains had fallen. Another bombing campaign in Northern Ireland as the ‘Irish National Liberation Army’ phoned in bomb warnings, some of which were hoaxes. Two police stations were attacked, but escaped without injury or serious damage. Nearby houses were less lucky. Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit returned to Brighton today to attend a reopening ceremony for the Grand Hotel, badly damaged in the IRA bomb attack two years ago and Concord flew past in a salute. A senior South African churchman, who reported being tortured and badly treated, has won a court order restraining police from further mistreating him during his detention. Sport is in the headlines with today’s successes for Britain in the European games and also Ian Botham is threatening to leave Somerset cricket club over their decision not to renew the contracts of his West Indian mates, Richards and Gower. Daniel went swimming with Steve tonight, after a day playing with his computer and boat. Di took Debbie to see the ‘Care Bare No2 Movie’ and her mother came over to look after Della and enjoyed it. The day warmed up a little, with some sun, but it rained again this afternoon late on. It seems that the weather will be much the same tomorrow.