A leisurely start to a frosty day in my office reading and writing and then laying the table with our silver and china for a fine roast dinner of lamb before helping Debbie with her advanced maths homework and then to find three nests of dove chicks struggling to keep warm in the cold weather. Begun will now be released after those protests, there is no news of Terry Waite, police in Belfast shoot women customers and a gangster armed only with replica guns and Labour are favourites to win the forthcoming Greenwich by-election.
Had gone straight to bed last night and slept very soundly. Reluctantly awake this morning, even after a fair lay in, but suggested to Diana that we forego our fried breakfast this morning, in view of our other eating opportunities. We had a normal breakfast of cereal instead. My hair was easier to control this morning, after having cut and shampoo it yesterday. After breakfast, I went to my office, sat in the large brown chair next to the south window and sat in the morning sun, first reading the Observer fully, and then catching up on yesterday’s journal, until coffee at 11.00am and, afterwards, the necessity of going out to feed the ducks and doves. After this, I borrowed Diana’s camera and drove slowly around Little Paxton, taking photographs of many of the buildings. This action must have looked highly suspicious as I received a number of strange looks. Home by 12.30 and in time to lay up the table with the best china and silver for lunch. A nice meal of roast lamb, which we all enjoyed. Daniel has become quite keen on doing the washing up, as he can listen to the radio at the same time.
This afternoon, whilst Diana took the girls for a walk, I went up into the loft and fixed the ball-cock – it had been leaking and a pile of ice had collected under the overflow pipe overnight. The washer was shot and so I soon had it fixed. A little work in my office later (updating my history files from the scrap book and Ramply interview) and I only have the pre and post war periods to do now (only!!) Broke off for a sit-round tea in the lounge and watched the Antiques Road Show, before resuming. This evening, I also helped Debbie with some more maths. Unfortunately, now she needs tuition on the work that she has never tried before. My doves seem to have three nests of youngsters, some old enough to survive the cold weather, which is quite a shock. A top Soviet official announces that Begun, the Jewish dissident, has been released after a week of demonstrations. They ‘say’ that he would have been released several days ago, if it were not for the demonstrations. Lebanon’s President has told the British government that he has no knowledge of the fate of Terry Waite, but Gemayel’s powerlessness in his own country is renowned. Beirut is still in anarchy, with the Palestinian refugees in the camps still suffering from starvation. The news from Belfast is of firstly police shooting two women customers and a masked man, but the gangsters only seemed to have replica guns, and a full enquiry is under way over their decision to open fire. In a separate incident, six people were detained after lorries were impounded at Fishguard, West Wales. Five freight vehicles were seized off of the ferry from Ireland. Labour are well ahead in the Polls for the forthcoming Greenwich by-election on February 26th; and the SDP have pushed the Tories into third place from their runner-up position in the last general election. After a sharp frost last night, another is forecast for this evening. A flurry of sleet and snow that we had today will be repeated, but we should get a little sun tomorrow to warm up the baby doves. The River Bure levels here in Horning peaked at 0.74m today and then fell to 0.64m by late evening and were dropping still further.