A full day of work for Robin, and his digger, landscaping the riverside gardens, uplifting trees and bushes, breaking up paths and burying concrete and levelling area for our new games lawn before long sessions with Debbie and Daniel as we hear of the increased optimism over East/West arms reductions but also of the congested and inhumane conditions imposed on Indian immigration applicants. India’s President, Rajiv Ghandhi, condemns the governments moves as ‘racist and a reflection of Britain’s attitude to South Africa’ and he was not wrong
A restless night, listening to the rain and anticipating the work for today. It was a worry that the overnight rain might endanger the use of the digger on the riverside lands and its conveyance across the council’s grass verge. An early start, awoken with morning tea at 6.30. Complete darkness at this time and so showered, shaved and dressed with the electric lights for illumination. Down to breakfast at 7.00am and then out to meet Pete, who I had got to arrive early at 7.15am. We freed the double gates and soon the Massey Ferguson digger of Robin Colbig arrived and came quite easily onto the site.
The overnight rain had stopped now and, as he started working, the dry soil soon surfaced and dried out the surface slicks. I got Robin to unearth a dozen or so stumps from the top of the slipway and along the hedgerow, whilst Pete and I took up the paving stones. We all then concentrated on Bill’s old winch, eventually despairing of separating it from its accompanying concrete. So we lifted it with the digger, dug a deep hole, and put it at the top of the main slipway, ready for cementing in and early use. Then he dug up the shrubs we were going to save for Nigel and my two espalier fruit trees, which we moved to their new positions near the summer house. Then, as we were getting on like a house on fire, tragedy struck and an iron pole went right through a rear tyre, splitting the inner tube. A hold on proceedings, as I took Robin home to St Neots to get his pick-up truck and then two hours to fix the puncture. By this time, the skies had cleared, the sun shone and it was warm as we made up time. Robin moved the earth around, as we picked up bricks and barrowed them to fill a neighbours slipway. Also moved the wood around as we gathered up the branches. He unearthed a concrete path and buried it deep underground and we used the chainsaw to salvage logs whenever possible. The whole day we worked, and by tea time the lawn was flat and level and the bonfire wood piled high and neatly in the centre. I paid Robin £120, a bit over the odds, but he had worked effectively and with quality, the job taking only a single day, rather than the estimated two. The children loved the working of the digger and the result and we all found the transformation quite astonishing. I took the precaution of chatting to a number of neighbours to reassure them and avoid difficulty. Tea of sausage and mash, and ice cream after. Then a long session with Daniel on his schoolwork and another with Debbie, reading her the first magazine of volume 4 on meadowlands. The news today is of increasing optimism in an East/West deal for eliminating medium range weapons, but there is some confusion as to whether this type of missile deal would need the end of Star Wars. As the USA moves towards the mid-term elections for the Senate, the PR electoral campaign gains pace, with the best possible face being put on the Reykjavik outcome. In the aftermath of the imposition of visa restrictions on Asian visitors to the UK, there is still horrific congestion of movements through immigration. India’s President, Ghandhi, condemns the governments moves as ‘racist and a reflection of Britain’s attitude to South Africa’. After two weeks of dispute, it seems that the Sealink strike will soon be over. Management compromises have led to the unions recommending to their members that they should return. The San Salvador earthquake victims now amount to over 1000 dead and a village, inundated and buried by a mud slide, has now been discovered.