A full day working on the shuttering and enclosure of the storm outlet after a more comfortable night and then having to stand in for my sick gardener with spraying later. High Court proceedings end up with the release of 20 children but there were 113 taken away from their families in all which need consideration. Thatcher prevents EEC progress on budgets and trade measures, her supporting publisher, Murdoch, takes over the only Alliance supporting paper and Ulster murders occur daily.
A nice night with our balcony door open to create a through draft. It was 80+degF in our bedroom even so and ours was the coolest room in the house. Just shaved and dressed again after my swim late last night and then down to the kitchen, when I just had 10 minutes to feed the doves before breakfast. Wheat flakes again, then dressed in jeans and to my office. Though still warm, today was less humid than of late. Did one or two urgent things of paperwork, then was driven outside by the sight of Pete doing several things wrong in the garden.
I had watered the flower baskets last night and he repeated the chore, then started watering areas that I was trying to dry out (!). He does not seem well, breathing heavily and hardly speaking at volume. He was soon away to the hospital for a blood test, but came back to do some strimming. He could not spray the roses, because today turned even hotter and sunnier and the anti-aphid chemical can burn the leaves if applied in strong sun. So I had to do them myself this evening! Hardly worth having a gardener really, apart from the lawns. I drove off to St Neots Tool Hire (actually based at Cosy Corner, Little Paxton), arranged for the delivery of 3 ½ tons of ‘ballast’ (sand and aggregate mixed) and bought three buckets and a large rake. Home and phoned Buckden Marina to discuss the Norfolk boat transport with Richard, the Manager, who will confirm the job details later this week. Back, after Pete returned from the hospital, to the Hire company and got a hammer drill and 2-inch submersible pump and then brought them back. Tried out the pump, but it was making little headway and, the company having no other, had to make do. Time for lunch and made myself a salad and pork pie and cake and milk to follow. Needed more of a rest after, but kept it short and went out to work on the pump. I found the intake grill was crushed and worn, but, once I had taken it off and straightened it with a hammer, the pump functioned much better. This afternoon I dug out the sewer sump, gradually lowering the pump and water level as I went along. A messy and tricky operation, as the mud & compacted bricks had to be removed with a trowel and bucket most of the time. Eddie and Stella were out on their plot as well and gave me two tins of cement water proofer. I also went into St Neots and bought some more, and ordered some reinforcing steel mesh for delivery tomorrow. Daniel called me in for tea and we had (yet) another salad, this time with chicken pieces. Ice cream to follow. I thought I was sunk when rain started to spot and I shot out to finish drilling holes with the percussion drill and start to assemble the shuttering for the lower concrete section. The ballast had arrived this afternoon and was by the river, ready for me to start concreting. Luckily, the shower stopped and the rest of the evening was fine. It let me screw in the rawlbolts to provide a key between old and new concrete, and finish the shuttering by dusk. Then I had to spray the roses for greenfly and put everything away. At last I am now ready for the hire of a cement mixer and the start of my concreting tomorrow, if it does not rain too hard. In the ‘child abuse’ High Court proceedings in Leeds today, some of the 20 children were returned to their parents and the case is adjourned until July 20th. No further press comments are allowed by court order and the number of children is not known. At the same time, Cleveland Health Authority have withdrawn new child abuse case guidelines, introduced only a day or two ago, and denied that 202 children had been placed in care. ‘Only’ 113 are involved, as no action was taken in the other cases. In the EEC Summit, Britain are alone and isolated as the talks end in disagreement. Mrs Thatcher’s Free Market philosophy clashed with all the others and the 11 other leaders argued for an increase in Community Budget and she refused. In the murder-a-day world of Northern Ireland, today’s victim was a man in the Upper Crumlin Road. He ran to the back of his flat, but was cornered and shot dead by two men in cold blood. The ‘Today’ newspaper is bought, subject to Monopoly Commission approval, for £38 million by Robert Murdoch of News International. Thus ends the Alliance stance of this one paper, as it is now bound to turn Tory and this government will do nothing to stop it. The weather is forecast to rain a little overnight and then be warm and dry for the rest of the week.