To Sandy and Jorden’s for supplies, dropping off Daniel to school to take his final Maths exam (which seemed to go well) and to the Koi fishery for advice from Steve Field on pond filtration before home to construct Quadro which Debbie used as a theatre to present a puppet show. This as Thatcher recognises The Alliance threat by attacking them, three dead crew members of the Herald of Free Enterprise are washed up and details of the latest South African conflicts are concealed by government censorship.
Slept fine, after a poor start. Di had not put me out any drinking water for the night and I had to get up to drink from the tap of the en-suite basin. Sat in my bedside chair again, to have my morning drink, although my back is a little bit better today. Then to get quickly washed and dressed to arrive at breakfast before Daniel left for school. It was another cold, frosty morning and I wanted to give Daniel a lift to St Neots, so as to be in control of his cold as much as possible for the second half of his mock maths exam. Once I had let out the ducks and fed the doves, it was time to load the rest of the family into the Range Rover and go to Sandy and Biggleswade.
Di dropped me off at The Avenue Koi Carp place in Sandy for an hour and drove on to Jordans at Biggleswade for wheat flakes and poultry food. I had an informative session with Mr Steve Field and learnt all about the requirements of pool filtering and Koi carp management. Once the girls had returned, we went to the local Little Chef for an early lunch and then on to St Neots market square to see if Daniel emerged from his school bus. He was not expected to and did not, as he took his other exam after taking lunch at the school. We went back home and I got the Quadro building set out and we built a climbing frame for Della. Near the end, Dan phoned, having finished his exam and Di went to pick him up. Unfortunately, I was watching the rugby on TV and the girls had crying fits when I would not help them finish the construction. Once Daniel got home, I checked his performance in the maths exam and estimated he got a mark in the 70s. He must surely get the 60-70% overall, which will ensure he should take his ‘O’ level in June. Dan then helped the girls with the Quadro kit and played on all evening after tea, making a truck on wheels. Debbie made a puppet theatre and gave us all a Sooty show. This evening I wrote up my journal and planned my Koi pond. The news today is of a Thatcher speech, dutifully reported as criticising Alliance policies, but this only shows that she recognises the threat of this third force in British politics. David Steel hit back at the last bigoted remarks by the Tory Party Chairman yesterday. Three bodies from the ‘Herald’ wreck were washed up in Holland and one was a crew member – all were women. Fine Gael, the Republic of Ireland’s second largest party, have elected the young candidate, Alan Dukes, as their leader, to replace Dr Garret Fitzgerald, who resigned after his party’s recent defeat in the general election. In South Africa, 60 black demonstrators were arrested after tear gas was allegedly fired into crowds by the police. In turn, the rebels were accused of throwing petrol bombs, but due to the censorship, nobody will ever know the true facts.