A better bright and breezy day for our heating and then the decorator, tiler and pool contractors resume work as we make a day trip to Bedford and struggle but the Escort Estate suffers suspension trouble and we need a breakdown vehicle to get home as my Mum and Dad visit and play with their grandchildren . This as Reagan fails to get Congress to approve aid for the Contra guerrillas fighting the Sandinista government
Woke to find that the pilot light had stayed on and the heating had worked this morning for the first time in a long while. Of course it went out after two hours of use. No time to read the morning paper before being called downstairs to a breakfast, missing both milk and fruit juice. Di had forgotten to buy them or order more from the milkman. The decorator, tiler and four pool men arrived before we left for Bedford and so I discussed their work plans for the day. The tiler finished even more and only has a couple of accessories to add. The decorator finished the wallpapering of hall, landing and stairs and only has a little more internal painting to do. The pool men used a delivery of waterproof cement and a vibrating poker to tamp down a filling between the block walls, demolished our old path and laid foundations for the pool retaining wall. Meanwhile, we went shopping in Bedford, parked in the multi-storey and, after coffee, went our separate ways, before rendezvousing in Debenhams for lunch.
I looked round Gibbs & Dandy Gale’s at axes, hatchets and electrical chain saws, to try to find a means of cutting our logs and then spent the rest of the morning at Peacocks, looking at the lots for tomorrow’s auction. Much nice furniture, but nothing that we needed. Homewards after lunch, but the Escort Estate broke down at Chawston, with front nearside suspension trouble that proved to be a leaf spring breaking. We crawled on to Wyboston at 5mph where I phoned for a Hunts Motor breakdown truck to come and tow the car away; and a taxi to pick us up and take us home in the meantime. No sooner had we arrived then Diana’s friends and children started arriving by prior arrangement and then I went back to St Neots to do a few shopping chores. Later Mum & Dad phoned to say they were coming to visit after Mum’s appointment at Addenbrookes hospital; and they later did in time for tea. Meanwhile, I had fed and put away the ducks (9 eggs) and the doves, who were still incubating an egg. In the end Mum & Dad stayed from 5.30am to 9.30am and we all thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Dad drew horses heads for Debbie, Mum played farmyard animals with Della and then we chatted and listened to music on the Hi Fi. Then everyone to bed after they left and the long process of putting out the lights and locking up the Hayling View. A dry, bright, but breezy day, with the temperature still feeling quite cool. No time to see the news broadcast tonight, but I did notice that President Reagan had lost his battle in the US Congress to get $100M aid for the contra guerrillas against the Sandinista government. Also sterling and the stock exchange hit new heights, as the City appreciated a budget designed to please them.