A chilly start to the day with steam rising from our swimming pool elevated to 83degC and then a productive morning working on family investments and financial summaries before writing covering letters to my financial advisors to seek their advice. Steve came over to join Daniel and cleaned the pool and then swam later before visiting Claire ‘to listen to records and watch TV’ as I removed guttering from the outer garage and applied the first coast of Sadolin Extra to the boards. Serious unrest in South Africa today as Police tried to ban a funeral for 21 blacks and they fought over the bodies, which was obscene; the TUC votes against any more nuclear power stations, Olivia Channon dies of a drug and drink overdose and it claimed that a third of students have tried heroine or similar and Vauxhall cut 1,000 jobs in Luton and intend to reduce total manning by a third
Was awake with Diana and spent my time looking at yesterday’s local papers, whilst Diana got the drinks. Woke up still suffering from a recurrence of a backache, which has troubled me since the fun the other day wrestling with the children in the pool. Got up, shaved and showered, ready for breakfast and then sat afterwards reading today’s FT. Di was quite upset at having to put the alarms off and unlock the house to take the girls to school. Then the task of feeding the doves, on a fine sunny and calm morning. Still, it was cold overnight and such steam was rising from our swimming pool, heated to 83degF, that it looked like a Turkish bath! I will only continue to heat it until the children are all back at school.
It was sometime today before the air temperature rose, but gradually the gardener cast off his coat, jumper, and then shirt, as he mowed the lawn. I spent the day in the office, working out family investment matters, printing out the summaries, and then composing and printing covering letters to my Accountant, Trust Solicitor and Stockbroker to explain my plans. During this time , Daniel’s friend Steve came over and I got them to clean out the pool and then later we had lunch and tea together, before they went swimming after. I started work on the outer garage when the sun had warmed up the guttering, so that it could be removed. I brushed down the bargeboards and painted on the first coat of Sadolin Extra before dusk. Just sufficient light left to clear and lock up and feed and put away the ducks. I had to unlock again to let Daniel in, who had been across to listen to records and watch TV with Claire. News tonight is of serious unrest in South Africa, as a funeral for 21 blacks was banned by the police. Both sides fought over the bodies, some being buried by mourners in between volleys of tear gas thrown by the police, and other bodies were seized by the authorities and individually buried. Such interference in their burial customs led to widespread anger and will come back in the future in the form of more trouble. George Stevenson, the ex-handyman suspected of strangling five people, has given himself up to police after his details were published in all of the tabloid newspapers and is in custody, with two others, being questioned. The TUC today backed a resolution banning the building of new nuclear power stations, but they rejected, by a small margin, the phasing out of existing nuclear stations. An Oxford inquest into the death of a government minister’s daughter, Olivia Channon, ascertained that she had taken both heroin and alcohol at a party. In a survey of first year Oxford students, a third has admitted experimenting with some type of drug or other. Vauxhall are cutting a thousand jobs at their vehicle factories at Luton and Ellesmere Port and intend total manning to be reduced by a third. Divers are still searching in Russia for missing persons from the passenger ship sinking, but there is little hope of finding them alive. After today’s fine weather, it will continue sunny in this part of the country for the next day or two.