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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.
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Stayed at the house on a fresher day to varnish The Lady and restore more folding furniture as Di made her normal Tuesday shopping trip to Cambridge and then invited her friends round for a swimming party where the children were left to their own devices in the pool, against our new house rules. Thatcher steadfastly refusing South African sanctions in the House of Commons debate today despite support for them within her own party, all opposition ones and the church as an Anglo/Irish pact meeting took place in Stormont against more Protestant demonstrations
A sound night in spite of the heat and then awake at 6.45am on a much fresher morning. As the day wore on the humidity and temperature dropped further. Breakfast of wheat flakes and fresh milk after insisting that the children first clear up their rooms. Then to unlock the house, but I only opened certain of the house balcony doors, as the breeze was quite lively and cooling. I decided against joining Di on a shopping trip to Cambridge and instead stayed at home to work my way through a number of tasks. I rubbed down yesterday’s varnishing and applied two more coats, and ‘filled’ in literally, in between stopping, the worm-holes in our newly acquired high chair. I also found time to clear the swimming pool out completely;
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Breakfast by the river on a fine, warm and sunny morning after driving off for milk and before recovering our missing dove hen from the pool and working on The Lady in the blistering heat with a subsequent dip in the pool for revival! Debbie’s school friend Briana and family also came for a swim which was a godsend today, but thunder storms are likely in days to come. The 10th anniversary of the Soweto disturbances resulted in reports leaking out of eight more black deaths today, despite the news blackout, and West Germany join Thatcher in disgracefully blocking sanctions at an EEC Foreign Ministers meeting
Fast asleep this morning when Di brought my morning tea and I did not want to get up. Then showered and shaved and down to get my breakfast. Unhappily, Daniel had drank the last of the milk and this started a fair row and really spoilt the beginning of the day for me. I spent some time opening up the house and outbuildings at the start of another swelteringly hot day, but still no milkman and so I had to drive to St Neots to get a bottle of milk. Home after and my breakfast, at last, in fine style by the river, under the garden parasol. Much warmer today and with even higher humidity too.
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Father’s Day – Diana brought me morning tea as a conciliatory gesture on Father’s Day before I took Debbie to the St Neots Evangelical Church and then I work on The Lady as the children enjoy the poll on another fine day which saw many boats on the river. Last gasp South African talks are sponsored by Archbishop Tutu as Zimbabwe’s president Mugabe calls for a black army to fight the whites as Danish Power Boat racer, Jorgen Askgaard, dies in a spectacular crash and explosion in the London Docks during a world championship race
A little lay in after another late night and then up to shave and shower. Di brought in a cup of tea as a conciliatory gesture and I finished it off before getting dressed. Around the house unlocking all of the balcony doors and drawing the curtains, before settling down to a nice fried breakfast. For father’s day, the children each gave me a nice card and some sweets, which was thoughtful of Di. I must say, though, that I still think that ‘Father’s Day’ as a recent innovation has yet to be a truly followed and significant event in the celebration calendar. Out to The Lady and today I managed to complete the repair to the cockpit roof, starting off by trimming the new wood and shaping a piece of marine ply and supporting rib.