A cool miserable day of weather that did not dampen Debbie’s school swimming party but Daniel and Steve Hicks felt it too cold for swimming in our own pool, it having cooled after yesterday’s power cut. Steve had a bad fall cycling and his young and attractive Mum had to collect him and I had to press Daniel to finish the antifouling on his old boat Aquabean so that we could roll it back on to its trailer and on the slipway. The planned USA/USSR nuclear arms deal will remove 72 Pershing warheads, US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Shultz will testify that he was against the arms-for-hostage deals and knew nothing of the Iran arms deals and Contra funding and British shipbuilders building the largest floating crane-ship in the world have to find another customer for it after their customer had gone bankrupt.
Slept well enough on a cool, near chilly, night. Up early after my morning tea, showered and dressed and first to the breakfast table. Melon and then cereal to eat, apple juice to drink, and then out to feed the doves on another grey and cool morning. A relaxing first half of the day, reading the morning paper and post, then watching the first day of the test match on TV and going through the local papers for Little Paxton items at the same time. Daniel had the company of his friend Jason and Debbie was at school for a day that included a swimming pool party. The miserable weather did not seem to dampen their fun at that event. Lunch with the others and back to my TV set and papers.
It was only when the cricketers took their tea, and England were struggling to make any bowling impression on the Pakistan batsmen, that I stirred up Daniel from his microcomputer and got him out anti-fouling the bottom of Aquabean (his old boat),. After tea we rolled it back with its trailer onto the top of the slipway and chocked it up so that Pete can tackle our games lawn area whilst we are away on holiday. Poor Steven Hicks came to join Daniel and then had a bruising fall when cycling off for tea. We had to phone for his mother to come and collect him. She is very young and attractive to have a boy of 15 and looks barely 30. The boys found the pool too cold tonight after yesterday’s power cut. I put up and set a host of light switch security timers and our house will be well illuminated whilst we are away. Daniel heard that his pen-friend, Janey, will not be in Little Paxton until later in the school holidays and so he might miss her visit. It does mean, however, that we can leave for Norfolk on Saturday and the weather forecast is much more optimistic for the weekend. News today is of the formal USSR arms deal proposal and its conditions that the German Perking 1A missiles go too. They use US nuclear warheads and are 72 in number. It is the turn of George Shultz, US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to testify as the first member of Reagan’s Cabinet to the Irangate hearings. He said he was always against arms-for-hostage deals and knew nothing of the Iran arms deals and Contra funding. He revealed how Reagan was being manipulated by his aides and what a battle royal he had. The US/Kuwaiti tanker convoy has passed through the Gulf without incident or attack from the Iranians. In the Iran/France diplomatic stand-off, the Pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad group has said it will not free any of its French hostages alive unless the French meet their demands. Another murder in Belfast, this time of a part-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment. Announcements today on 5 new local authorities, which will be rate-capped for the first time. This followed a key Cabinet meeting on public spending plans where the financial arguments prevailed over provision of services. It seems that Health and Education might have a little flexibility in budgets due to the Tory election promises. A sad story today as British shipbuilders commission the largest floating crane-ship in the world themselves after their customer had gone bankrupt. Now they have to find another customer for it. The Americans officially take over the Molesworth cruise missile base today in a ceremony with the Air Force partners. The weather forecast is for the weekend to be warm, sunny and dry in East Anglia and this should get us away to a good start.