Instructing lawn-mowing to the gardener, working at home and then taking Debbie to Offord for her horse-riding on Tango again and hearing a tale of woe from her teacher Maria before back to hear that Daniel is ‘engaged’ to his girlfriend Louise and they have exchanged rings and gifts. Colonel Rabuka declares a Republic in Fiji, Labour debates nuclear defence, a long-expected earthquake hits our beloved San Francisco and Thatcher’s government finally relents on public expenditure after years of monetary control resulted in economic failure.
A sound night and then awake to my morning tea on a fine morning. Sat in bed a while resting and waking up and then made a game effort to wash and shave, then dress in time for breakfast with the family. Just about achieved this objective, but the children were actually leaving the table as I arrived. Then the mad scramble to get Debbie and Daniel out of the door to catch their school bus and I settled into my office, as Di prepared to take Della to playschool for the morning. Di was a ‘helper’ today and so had to stay at the village hall anyway. We did not, therefore, see how Della would fare if left alone. My task for today was to write up my speech for St Neots Local History Society tomorrow night.
After a certain time writing hand written notes, I decided to go the whole hog and type it up properly. Soon time for coffee, which I had to make for myself, but first I went out and chatted lawns to the gardener. Poor fellow, he really has no clue about depth of cut of the mower, continually cutting the grass too short. Nor does he sweep the lawn before cutting, to disperse the worm casts and upturn the weed leaves etc to be taken by the mower. All this I explained to him. No matter what the task in life, it seems always easier to almost do the job yourself. Back to it until lunchtime, when Di arrived back quickly and prepared us a salad to eat. This afternoon she went to ‘keep fit’, with her mother arriving to look after Daniella, whilst I laboured on until teatime at 5.00pm. Tea with the children, then I went through Daniel’s work with him, to ensure he would do a good evening’s homework. Then time to go off with Debbie for her horse riding at Offord Cluny. She was with the older children for her riding this evening and managed quite well. Did everything willingly, except the jumping, which she has not tried for many weeks. Rode Tango again, who she gets on with quite well. I spoke to instructress, Maria, for some time there. It seems that she is depressed about the stables and has handed in her notice. Her own horse has been lame for a month and may well have to be put down. All very sad, when Debbie is now in a good riding group. Home to see the children finish off their work. Daniel had seen Louise earlier this evening and they exchanged gifts. To her, a ring for her birthday, and she bought him a necklace with a ‘D’ motive. They say they are ‘engaged’. God help us! Back to my speech for a few hours this evening, as I knew I could go to Bedford in the morning, if I could finish it tonight. Eventually done by 10.30am and then spent the next half hour printing it out, as I wrote up today’s journal. News this morning of Colonel Rabuka declaring his intention to form a Republic in Fiji and hoping he could keep the country a member of the Commonwealth and loyal to Her Majesty The Queen, which is quite irreconcilable. The Labour Party Conference today struggling with irreconcilable differences over nuclear defence policy and the Tory newspapers making hay whilst the sun shines at their expense. Had a call from Nigel Smith tonight, who was wondering if we were going to attend the music evening at Kimbolton Castle. Was intrigued to hear of my plans to stand as Alliance candidate at the local elections, as he had always considered me a Conservative supporter! Other news today is of the Soviet cosmonaut breaking the space endurance record – he has been up for some 238 days and Ground Control say his stay may total 10 months. A sharp earthquake across the Californian San Andreas fault, hitting Los Angeles as an epicentre, but affecting San Francisco as well. I have been warned about this, as we are going there at the end of the month. Pressures have been building up and experts have been expecting ‘The Big One’. May God help us again! The Tory Government spending ministers seem to be reaching agreement with the treasury and so the ‘Star Chamber’ may not be necessary. It seems Thatcher is now allowing Public Expenditure to rise in proportion to increases in the National Income, which is a change of policy most welcome from constraints in the depths of the depression in the early 1980s. Will Lawson also calling for a ‘Bretton Woods’ style world currency control mechanism, this government has just about reversed entirely its earlier stance. Pity we had to suffer during their monetary and laissez faire experiments for the lesson to be learnt.