A morning supervising the builders and afternoon working on my alarm system so as to be able to set it fully this evening for the first time as Michael Heseltine faces a huge challenge from the Westland Board and his Tory opponents and more trouble brews in the Middle East.
Difficulty in getting to sleep last night and so woke Diana up for some lovemaking, but then still had the same trouble. I find that whenever I work late into the evening, especially outside, I find the bedroom too warm, even when Di is freezing. Up and out to the birds after breakfast. One more duck egg (and only one) despite the new straw in their house. Intended to get down to my alarm system but, as it was the first day back for the builders, I kept an eye on them and barricaded all the link doors. They chiseled off all of the plaster next to the kitchen wall and around the stairs and then demolished the dividing wall to create space for our new master bedroom. By the time I had settled the builders, Joan was here and, with my tools and equipment in my office (now isolated by the stair work), I found it difficult to start. Di went to Bedford this morning and took the children and Daniel’s friends and I should have gone with them really.
In the end, by 12.00 noon I read the paper in the sitting room, expecting them home for lunch, but it was 1.45 by the time they eventually arrived. In the meantime, I had eaten a fair amount of nuts, fruit and pies and had thus catered for myself. Then to get down to the alarm system and spent the rest of the day, until late again, commissioning it. First I wired up all three front doors into channel 1 and then the two kitchen doors into internal channel 2. Then connecting them back up to the alarm and channeling them into plaster and woodwork to make an eventually neat job. I am getting the hang of the job now and next have the upstairs circuits and sounder channels to do next. By teatime, it was getting dark and so out to the ducks and then to set up my boat heating again. I am charging the batteries from the mains and keeping The Lady’s central heating on. We have weather forecasts of seven degrees centigrade of frost tonight to cope with. Finished my toils by 10.00pm and then the clearing up to do before bed. Watched a little TV with Di whilst having our bedtime drinks and then the chore of locking up and setting the alarms; with our house now protected on virtually all of our outside doors by the new contacts. News tonight is of a mounting challenge to Heseltine over Westland. Both Brittain and the Solicitor General, Sir Patrick Mayhew, are interchanging public statements, as the tussle continues. Meanwhile, the Westland Board are backing an increased offer from Sikorsky and trying to railroad through a shareholders decision next week; allowing no opportunity for them to vote on the better offer from the European Consortium. The argument is reaching crisis level politically, with Heseltine’s future at stake, but I hope he wins (as we must back a European offer to beat the Americans) but I fear he cannot do so without government backing. When parliament returns next week, the opposition parties will have a field day over this. News also of an explosion in a Glasgow sewer tunnel, killing 2 and injuring 7 others. Another instance of methane gas being ignited after building up in a confined space. The confrontation over Libya heightens in tension, with Russia accusing the US navy of openly threatening Libya and ‘causing an explosive situation’ in the Mediterranean. More Lebanese and Middle East problems are eclipsed by the other major news items. A cold night is in prospect, but no heavy falls of snow for the time being.