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Diana went to Cambridge as usual on a cool but sunny and dry day as Mr Larkin and Pete worked on the moorings and I worked outside on The Lady before taking Debbie on a challenging riding lesson on Edwin. The Tories still ahead in the election polls but their lead will narrow, the rebel government in Fiji has surrendered under pressure of the authority of the Queen’s Governor General, who refused to swear them in, and an injured women in hospital was shot dead there by her former attacker
Early awake to see Di up and making the morning tea. Nice to see Di down to 10st 5lbs, her slimming target weight, though my offer of a new wardrobe for her takes over at 10stone. The radio, an old paper and my drink, before getting washed and dressed early enough to check up on the tidiness of the children’s rooms. Normal breakfast and then out to feed the doves and see Pete about what to do. I carried on working outside most of the morning, supervising the charging of the boat batteries and taking nails out of salvaged timber from the old landing stages. No sign of Mr Larkin until lunchtime, when he brought a Kango hammer and started knocking in the boat harbour piles. A poor distraction for Pete who, finding the movement of clay spoil to form the summerhouse foundation rather hard going, kept stopping and chatting for most of the afternoon.
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Getting The Lady cleaned, fitted out and organising her transport to Norfolk this summer but Della was reluctant to have her stammer looked in to and Della was not prepared for her Brownies. The parties start publishing their election manifestos, A US warship was hit by Iraqi Exocet missiles in the Gulf, with 28 crew dead and after over 100 oil tankers had suffered a similar fate since 1980 and the UK teachers strike is set to go ahead regardless.,
Sound asleep for most of the night, but awake in the early hours. My morning tea at 7.00am and still struggling to get showered and dressed by the time of our breakfast at 7.45am. Out to feed the doves then and started to tidy up the workshop to wait for Joan and Pete to arrive. We had decided to get Joan to clean The Lady today and so I settled her in, helping her to carry down the stuff etc. The showers wet the power cable and fused the electricity and this caused some consternation when she could not use the vacuum cleaner. Morning coffee and then I took Di shopping in St Neots, dropping her off and then driving to Buckden Marina to see Richard about transporting The Lady to Norfolk this summer and also getting her undersides painted and anti fouled.
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Cleaning The Lady’s hull after a fine English breakfast and then watching Nigel Mansell forced out of the Belgian Grand Prix by Ayrton Senna before Mum and Dad arrived in the rain with Mum playing scrabble with the children but tired and irritable at the end of the visit. The papers are full of election smears as all the politician were on the election trail today. In Fiji, a number of leading judges have ruled the military coup and regime illegal.
A sound night and slept well until 7.00am when Di brought in the tea. Listened to another farming programme on the radio – Lord Plumb (formerly President of the NFU, now the President of the European Parliament in Strasbourg) was hosting a breakfast interview. After my shower and shave, our own breakfast of delicious fried eggs, bacon, tomato, mushrooms and bread, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Out after to The Lady, which I turned round carefully and cleaned the starboard hull section off from the dinghy. It looked really nice when I had finished, but it was tiring working at water level and so, after feeding the ducks and doves, I went inside for a rest. Sat in the kitchen reading today’s Observer and yesterday’s Financial Times, until lunch. After, the Belgian Grand Prix was televised and so I watched the start. Much incident and collision and the unfortunate Nigel Mansell had to retire after a crash with the careless Ayrton Senna.
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Spotting cuckoos and other birds this morning as Mr Larkin finishes of the quay-heading and we discuss the storm outlet and then I host a family lunch before watching Coventry City beat Spurs in the FA cup final and then spend time on The Lady. Right wing, Tory MP, Harvey Proctor, stands trial on Wednesday next, charged with homosexual indecency charges, and the Russians have tested a space rocket, capable of launching space craft similar to the US space shuttle.
Awoke early, as Di went downstairs, but had to wait about an hour until Di brought my tea up. Listened to a farming programme on the radio in the meantime, with a ‘pushy’ farmer being interviewed, who did not believe in organic farming. Up, showered, shaved and then washed my hair, before getting dressed and going down to breakfast. In the end, I was last to the table. After, I went out to the riverside gardens to feed the doves and I took my binoculars and watched the progress of a cuckoo. We have seen a lot this year, and out in the open and quite easy to observe. I also saw a goldfinch, as well as the usual birds. Mr Larkin arrived to continue the river work, and we chatted a while. Today, he finished off piling the downstream end and tie much of the work back. He is talking of going away soon to do the work at Hartford, but I am not keen on him leaving the work incomplete. He is concerned at the spring and storm outlet and how to handle it, which rather depressed me. Soon Di was ready to go to St Neots and I had to come in and lock & secure the house.