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Tacking The Lady again on a cold and blustery day and then watching Nigel Mansell win a Grand Prix and go top of the drivers table whilst hail here was covering the ground like snow and the UK unemployed were protesting from London to Liverpool as more stormy and wild weather is forecast
Awoke at 7.00am in the normal manner, even though Di insists on trying to have a lay in each Sunday. Eventually Della came in at 7.20am and unsettled Di and we both got up on a cold & blustery morning. The wind is now coming from the north and is quite blustery, with low-level clouds scudding over the area, but at least the weather started dry. Whilst Di got showered and dressed and then made the breakfast (for I showered and got ready quickly) I sat in the kitchen/breakfast room and wrote up yesterday’s journal. I had weighed in at 13st 4lbs this morning, which is a good reduction on recent weights and so I felt quite justified in tucking in to a nice fried breakfast this morning. Out to feed the doves and, wrapped in two jumpers, a cap and an anorak, I then started work on The Lady. I used tissues and white spirit to clean off the excess mastic from the iron rubbing strip and then, turning the boat round, I started planing the mahogany gunwale on the starboard side.
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A day of considerable progress of Mr Larkin in quay-heading my Hayling View moorings and for me on the port side of The Lady and then taking Diana in the Daimler to Cambridge to see ‘Star Trek 4’ on a cold and windy day that did not deter Daniel and his friends from swimming in my 81degF pool! The polls put the Tories 13% ahead of Labour for any June election, the Herald enquiry reveals more mal-practice and the papers feature MI5 allegations.
Slept well enough after a latish night and was glad of my morning tea. Nursed my hands through my showering, shaving and dressing routine. I have three small ‘hurts’ from the task of working on The Lady that are quite painful until healed. A breakfast of wheat flakes and apple juice to drink and then it was the scramble to get Daniel off to school. Dressed in my working jeans for more punishment and was soon out in the cool and wind of a fresh spring morning. Mr Larkin was on station again today at 8.00am, having lost a lot of time yesterday with his fetching and carrying of materials, and was soon piling the entire length of the upper mooring next to Chris & Russell’s plot. I turned The Lady round, so that the sun could get at yesterday’s preparation, to dry it out after the overnight dew & mist.
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Exciting day of boat harbour dredging and steel sheet collection as the rain fell, frosts are still expected and we overcame some other set-backs whilst I worked hard on tidying my desk, reconciling accounts and paying bills and all three children swam in the pool this evening. The unpopular search for nuclear waste disposal sites has been called off for south-east England with an election looking imminent, Ken Baker is publishing plans to extend the capacity of popular schools, Thatcher is accused of encouraging the EEC to sabotage the current nuclear disarmament talks and the ferry disaster enquiry hears how the Bosun fell asleep and there was no deck officer on duty to check.
A late night writing up my journal and watching the snooker on TV. Awoke early this morning so as to get up, dressed and fed before the digger arrived with Robin Felbrig at 7.15am. Had arranged for Mr Larkin and Peter to arrive early as well and so we were ready for him. The day started bright and dry, but there was soon rain in the air that got steadily worse as the day progressed. As soon as Robin arrived, he detected that he had a puncture (again!) and so he took the front rear side wheel off and we took it to ATS Tyre Depot in the Range Rover. Took an hour to get it fixed and he was back working at 9.00am approx. He has a new Massey Ferguson digger and it is good to see how able and efficient this machine is. In 3 ½ hours he had cut out a harbour 20ft by 12ft wide, 3ft below water level (at least on all these dimensions. The resulting spoil made a mess of the area destined to be my games lawn, but will make adequate filling for the camp shedding. By this time the rain was falling quite hard. I had managed to wipe up the excess Sealastic from bedding in the Lady’s gunwale and sand down all of the original varnishing of the last couple of days, ready for some more paint when the weather improves. Mr Larkin spent the day ferrying tons of pile sheeting and box sections from its arrival point at The Paper Mill.