Busy day helping Daniel to wire up his new Viking 17 and breaking off to welcome Di’s mum for lunch and then receiving a visit from John Lamb and then taking him over to Nigel’s Hail Weston House to review the landscaping operations whilst Daniel enjoyed his new boat and poor Della had her customary does of chicken pox but still retained her appetite. This as The Alliance rates second in the latest opinion polls despite Tebbit’s attacks, Kinnock visits the USA via Concord, paramilitary funerals are banned in Derry, Thatcher tries sabotaging the East/West nuclear arms limitation by linking progress to civil rights and. Lastly, efforts start to try and right The Herald of Free Enterprise
Awoken early by Di with the morning tea. Daniel had asked that we make an early start on the Viking 17, to finish the job of wiring the new electrics, so that it could be tried out. Down to breakfast. Poor Della has a good case of chicken pox, with spots everywhere, but she is brave and bearing up well. She wanted an egg for breakfast, as well as cereal and Di was able to use my new ‘egg-candler’ to ensure they were all right before cooking them. Daniel and I were out by 8.00am and well underway by 9.00. We put in the inside light, the horn, the tachometer and broke off at 10.00am for morning drinks. Nearly finished at midday, but not quite, and so broke off for lunch. Di's mum had been delayed by the A45 road works and was delayed and so I changed my clothes for lunch.
As we were finishing, John Lamb arrived and I took him out for a drink. He chose Hail Weston and we had a long chat, whilst he ate a ploughman’s. He does not seem to be very busy on his marketing consultancy and does not talk about it much, but we discussed investments etc and our personal lifestyles. In truth, he seems a bit dull and set in his ways and I sense he keeps hoping that I will start a new adventure and include him in. I have no such plans for the computer industry, though he may ask from time to time. Being in Hail Weston, we popped in to see Nigel, busy with a proposal to finish this afternoon. I showed John around the grounds and the results of Nigel’s JCB gardening and Nigel spared us his time courteously, in spite of his pressures. Home to Little Paxton after and I made a tray of tea and we chatted some more. Whilst I had been away, Daniel had become restless and actually finished off the boat wiring himself! Once John had gone, I took Daniel out for a spin up the river and all systems were working well. The engine does need ‘propping-up’ and I phoned Ely Boat Chandlery and instructed Peter to order a finer propeller for us. The weather turned really windy and wild tonight and I went in to take press cuttings from the local papers on Little Paxton. Daniel was not put off, however, and sat in his boat reading ‘girly’ magazines and listening to his ‘Wog-Box’ (Hi-Fi), tuned to Chiltern Radio. The news today is of the Alliance rising to second position in the latest public opinion poll, which worries both major parties and gives credence to the view that Tebbit’s attacks on the third force in British politics have been counterproductive. Kinnock is in the USA, arriving by Concord, to see US leaders including the President, and battling against a concerted press campaign on both sides of the Atlantic to belittle his visit. Bishop Daily of the Derry, Northern Ireland, has banned all funerals of terrorist/paramilitary, after a ceremony took place yesterday, with guns fired over the grave and in the form of a military salute. The ‘sterilisation’ law case concerning the juveniles is now going to the House of Lords. An Anglo/Japanese trade confrontation may follow a move, where Cable and Wireless have been outmanoeuvred by a consortium aiming to dominate telecommunications in Japan. Thatcher is linking arms control with Russian progress on civil rights and this, together with early deployment of Cruise missiles at Molesworth, seems to me to be an attempt to sabotage the chances of the East/West arms talks succeeding. The operation to right the ‘Herald’ ferry wreck is still on schedule, but heavy seas had put paid to an early attempt to right the vessel this week.