Working outside decorating the house and garages again on a fine and warm day until night-fall and a meal of pork chops when I heard news of the demise of the Russian Nuclear Submarine and the heroic efforts of the crew to stop the reactor exploding and of the arms intruders threating the highly-guarded Tory conference again as a testament to Thatcher’s unpopularity. Kasparov has narrowly beaten Karpov to retain the world chess championship
Slept well and awoke to find my morning tea on offer. A mild night and no hardship in having our bedroom French windows open, either last night or this morning. Showered, shaved and then enlisted Diana’s help before breakfast in getting Daniel to clear up and tidy his room. Some wheat flakes and then to quickly apply a second coat of Sadolin to the office and bedroom door steps, before going out to feed the doves. A time working in the office, sorting my papers and attending to a few important matters.
I paid the £75K bill for trust gilt-edged stocks from de Zoete, made the appointment that my architect has been requesting and a few other things. Mr Pink of Marshalls does not have our Range Rover yet. Di came back from St Neots and we had a coffee together, before I rushed into St Neots to do a few chores. Home to a salad lunch and then, this afternoon, I settled down to work on the inner garage. A long job sanding and scraping off the old paint from the large and small door frames and then the small door itself. Continued to listen to Radio 4 and Woman’s Hour and in particular a couple of stories made the time and effort pass quite amicably. The builders returned to fit the coping stones and finish the wall and then clear up all of their mess. Time for tea of pork chops and then I quickly put on a primer and undercoat on the garage white-work as darkness fell. Actually finished it by electric light and then had to put the ducks away and clear up in the dark. A fine and warm evening. Spent time with Daniel on his schoolwork and got him to correct some physics. The news today was of the sinking of the damaged Russian nuclear submarine, lost with all 16 missiles and its propulsion reactor. The Atlantic is 3 ½ miles deep at that point and so salvage is unlikely. Both the USA and USSR say that there is no danger of radioactivity, but it is the first time that a vessel with long range nuclear missiles has been lost. Sergei Anatolievich Preminin was a Russian sailor died on the nuclear submarine K-219 when he manually prevented an impending nuclear meltdown. A Jordanian journalist has appeared at the Old Bailey, charged with sending his ‘girlfriend’ on board a jet, with a bomb hidden in her luggage. It is claimed that he was arrested by the Syrian Embassy. Luton Town FC will not be playing in the League Cup after the Football League, as they refuse to give in on the requirement for away fans to see both matches. A vote amongst clubs had little sympathy for Luton, in spite of the Tory Government’s backing of the club’s policy. Their party conference has started with a press evening, where they have poured scorn on the opposition parties and try to stress future policy, rather than past performance. A new paper is published tomorrow – ‘The Independent’ – and faces a lot of competition from other quality dailies. Kasparov has beaten Karpov to retain the world chess championship, but it was closer than anticipated, after an early convincing lead. Later tonight we hear that two men are arrested at the Tory Conference hotel in Bournemouth and charged with firearm offences. Parts of the town are sealed off, and no aircraft may overfly at less than 5500 feet, and police boats patrol the shore line and marksmen line the rooftops. Some show of the number of enemies that Thatcher has created for herself.