Working on varnishing The Lady’s sliding roof on a cooler day and managing work on The Hayling View’s riverside gardens with breaks watching the World Cup football as graphic details of South African repression leak out despite censorship of an entire church congregation being tear-gassed and detained with hundreds more clergy missing and the US House of Congress adopts a policy of dis-investment and complete economic sanction but that does not stop Reagan and Thatcher shamefully acting to veto a UN Security Council Resolution approving limited sanctions
Slept sound and woke to a cooler morning and my tea. A little listen to the radio and then my shower and shave. I had intended to wash my hair, but lacked the time and so went out to feed the doves and start work on The Lady. Jumper and jeans to start, but soon the temperature rose and the jumper was off. First to rub down the sliding roof and then, during the course of the day, two full coats of varnish. Morning coffee on my steamer chair on the front lawn, as the neighbour’s youth, for £1 per hour, continued laying my causeway by taking spoil from our soil heaps.
Lunch of steak and kidney pie with carrots and new potatoes. When Daniel came home, I supervised his homework and exam revision and he brought home a picture that was really very good and I shall get it framed and hung. Tea of salad rolls and then Dan had his friends Gary, Steve and Paul round to go swimming and they stayed in most of the evening, with Debbie and Della as well. I went in to watch England beat Paraguay 3-0 to reach the quarter finals of the World Cup in Mexico, in a very impressive performance. I tended the sprinklers and hoses before, during and half-time and after the match and still managed to get our large gardens watered. The ducks and doves, before in to lock up and write my journal. Later to see the TV news and watch most of the Spain vs Denmark match, which was also good. News tonight was still of South African unrest and still details emerge of the repression, despite the censorship, but the most significant event was the adoption in the US House of Congress of a resolution to implement complete financial disinvestment and total economic boycott of trade with South Africa. SA opposition MP, Ray Swart, talked of thousands of people being detained and disappearing and Terry Waite has reported difficulty in finding certain of the Anglican clergy. Business leaders complain of the detention of union leaders as leading to future conflict and thousands of black supermarket workers held sit-down strikes in protest at this. Amnesty International are trying to ascertain the identity and whereabouts of the victims. At Elsies River, near Cape Town, Father Demaraj Leban and a complete congregation of 250 parishioners were detained after windows were broken and tear-gas grenades thrown in to terrorise them. A full engine refit of the QE2 has been lost to W Germany, after Bristol ship builders declined to bid and many are critical of this blunder. Kenneth Baker has announced a full review of student grants, after approving only a 4% increase in this year’s grants. Later tonight the UK and US both veto a UN Security Council resolution on limited economic sanctions against South Africa, which is shameful. More fine weather forecast until the weekend.