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To Walton on Thames on another cold day with Daniel to view, trial and buy a Viking 17, though we had to break Thames ice to do so! Home to ring baby doves, continue writing and editing my history book and spend a little time with Debbie. Two Irishmen are arrested for planning an attack on Margaret Thatcher’s son’s wedding; a riot in Wolverhampton over police violence, Jerry Hall is cleared of drug offences in Barbados
Despite my late night, I was awake by 7.00am and so got up as usual and showered/shaved for breakfast. A bit groggy, but otherwise OK. A little while reading today’s paper, before Daniel badgered me into leaving. A nice journey in the Daimler, although our navigation was awful. Being out of practice on the roads, having an out of date map book and being a bit disorganised, we probably doubled our journey time. Went through Bedford and witnessed an unfortunate incident, as an old lady collapsed twice in the street, with hypothermia or something. I stopped the car and went to assist, but fortunately a police car was passing and she was taken off by ambulance. We went round the M25 orbital motorway to the M3 and then east to Walton-on-Thames.
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At home on a cold and blustery day completing my history edits and merging my scrap book items such that the subsequent filing and printing took me until way into the night as the sell-off of Leyland trucks is a done deal but the rest of British Leyland is saved with £750m aid. Haughey fails to get a majority in the Irish elections but will try to form a government
A cold, blustery day. Started it early and was down to breakfast on time, then got straight down to my Little Paxton history. Was first completing a final couple of edits and then printed out all of the miscellaneous files that had been updated. This included my Anglo-Saxon section, the pre and post enclosure surveys and the start of the section on pre-war L.P. For lunch, Di’s mother came, and we had a pie and sausages. No sign of Charles, Di’s Father, who stays at home these days.
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Receiving Elm Leisure for boiler rectification between sessions writing my history all day and then taking Debbie for a poor horse-riding lesson before watching Gary Lineker score all four goals as England beat Spain 4-2. Leyland Trucks to be sold off to DAF of Holland, Charles Haighey is slightly ahead in the Irish election and the Tories just the same in our opinion polls but the big story is of an Irish trawler being dragged backwards by a submarine for hours
Slept well last night after warming up with our electric blanket first. A while listening to Radio Cambridgeshire, whilst I drank my morning tea and then got showered, shaved and dressed. Breakfast of wheat flakes and then a couple of hours in my office working on the chapters on the Grove Farm cottages in the village centre. I had opened up the inner garage and rear gate and, at 10.00am, Paul Salvadori of Elm Leisure and his builder had arrived and were surveying the job of screening the boiler. I went out to see them and we had decided on a course of action in a few minutes and they left, planning to do the work quickly.
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Off to Cambridge on a day of cold northerly winds after a heavy frost and there to check in the Daimler for snagging, meet up with Di’s family for lunch and do some shopping until back for more history book writing about Grove Farm and, after more progress with the children on maths prep., off tired to bed. The Soviet whistle-blowing Psychiatrist, Dr Anatoli Koryagin is at last released from detention, TV and Radio journalists walk out to protest against Thatcher’s use of the Official Secrets Act to supress the media with support from both the Opposition leaders and The Archbishop of Canterbury pleads for the release of his envoy Terry Waite
Slept well and then caught Di in bed by waking up early and we started the day off well. Showered and shaved for breakfast, getting the kids to clear up their rooms as well. After the meal, I went out and swapped the child’s safety seat into the Daimler, so that we could take the car back to Marshalls in Cambridge to be repaired. A nice luxury drive, dropping Diana and Della off in the town centre and then going out to Marshalls to leave the car there. A second problem then arose, as the oil pressure sensor unit chose to falter and I put that down on the report sheet for them to address as well. The Sales Manager, Martin Hamblin, gives me a lift to the town centre and I meet up with Di and her parents for morning coffee, managing to be the first to arrive. Charles returns my translations of manorial transactions to me, having had evident trouble in figuring out the collection of Latin and old English.