A cold and hangover after last night and so breakfast in my pyjamas and a slow start to the decorating with the mastic sealant the main priority as the Tarmac guys came to surface our driveway and then time only with Daniel tonight as I had to give reading to Debbie a miss with my sore throat. Both sides anticipate the US/USSR arms talks in Reykjavik and Tory ministers promise spending at their conference as Sterling falls again!
Slept fine, but did wake up last night when the night got colder and we needed some more bed clothes. Had a cold coming on this morning, with a sore throat and some sniffles. Not surprising considering I have been sharing handkerchiefs with the girls during the progress of their colds. Sat in bed for quite a while writing up yesterday’s journal and was last down to breakfast in my pyjamas. Rode the scorn of the kids for this state of dress, but enjoyed my wheat flakes all the same. Felt rather hungover from yesterday and was about to dress after a slow shower when the tarmac man arrived, without warning, to look over our drives.
I scurried down to see him and, after a long look and discussion, quoted £640 + VAT to do the complete job. I accepted his offer and expected to see him on next Friday and Monday, when it was scheduled to do the work. Then returned a phone call to Martin Hamblin of Marshalls who, funnily enough, was also questioning the wisdom of our Daimler order last night. His concern was the rear seating arrangements – dual bucket seats, rather than a bench arrangement – and with my concern over any reduction in headroom due to the sliding roof, we agreed I should pop in on Friday to resolve it. After a coffee and, somewhat late and unsettled, I started the decorating again by preparing the inner garage door, touching up the bare metal patches with pink primer and then sanding down the front door. Started to undercoat the latter, when it was time for lunch. Another salad – this time with a pork pie in miniature and the prawn mixture purchased on special offer in Biggleswade yesterday. Back to it after and, had hardly stated when the tarmac man was back with lorry, materials and helper, asking if they could make a start! Let them do just that and settled for undercoating the rest of the front door, then the garage side door, as they started cutting the drive about. Then more mastic sealing until they had moved and I could spend three hours until dusk undercoating the inner garage door. Some time with Daniel on his schoolwork, but none for poor Debbie, as I was too tired and my throat too sore. News tonight is of the resignation of Kalb, Reagan’s Foreign Policy Spokesman, over false US disinformation about Libya and its plans. All this in the course of preparations for the Reykjavik mini-summit, where there is a widening rift between the two sides ambitions. South Africa is sending home Mozambique workers and a rash of new policy announcements at the Tory Conference, with the spending ministers getting the standing ovations. Sterling was under attack on the foreign exchanges again.