Working on The Lady off and on applying varnish to her sliding roof mountings after repair before buying and installing a protective tarpaulin. I was also helping local electors on a noise issue to do with a resident installing a plastic dome over their pool and still struggling with the Rolls Royce aircon. Today, their were global stock exchange falls as interest rates rise, 40 Burmese demonstrators killed in street protests and nurses pay increases are undermined by grading changes. Ken Dodd is on trial for tax evasion and a security guard and rescuer are knifed in a robbery.
Awoke quite early this morning and was ready for breakfast with the others. Dressed in working clothes to resume work on The Lady after breakfast. First tended the ducks and doves, as today was Pete’s day off, then got Daniel’s help to prop up the port side of the sliding roof again with two old oars. Daniel left with three friends for a day trip on the day-boat to Huntingdon. Di took the girls on her weekly shopping expedition for groceries. I started work preparing and then applying the first coats of varnish. First a clear coat and then a brown/mahogany colour one. Later this morning I spent an hour working on a local problem. A resident, backing on to Little Paxton Lane, has created a large pool dome cover, which is an eyesore to the people in LPL, also glows in the sunlight and amplifies the noise, which was evidently quite horrific last Sunday. Having been to see it last night, I had more calls today and spoke then to the Enforcement Officer of the Huntingdonshire District Council, who said that it had broken no planning laws. Then an Environmental Health Officer called round to see me after making a site visit and she will be talking to the owner to see if some voluntary sound and visual screening can be arranged. Once all this had finished, I returned to The Lady and was relieved that the weather had held up, despite the forecasts. Di home to get lunch, and then worked on all afternoon. By now, the new wood was blending in quite well and the bare wood was fully sealed.
Percy Meyer came over to use my photocopier and collected the remote answering machine playback control. A girl salesman called and sold me a recent coloured aerial photo of Little Paxton for £35, which is from a similar angle to one I have in black & white taken in 1920. Late this afternoon, I took the Rolls to the Cosy Corner tool hire place and bought a 5 metre by 5 metre tarpaulin, to cover the centre cockpit roof with tonight. I confirmed a nagging doubt from the other evening that the air conditioning had again ceased working and so I phoned Alec Norman Garages on my return to arrange for it to go in for a full service and correction. Getting quite tired by teatime, but I still worked out the rest of the day until dusk on the boat. Then a task to get the boys inside, the house locked up and my journal written before bedtime. News today of stock exchange falls in Japan overnight, then the US and Europe today, following a general increase in interest rates and fear of resumed recession. Burma seems to be heading for a violent revolution, as troops kill a total of 40 demonstrators in widespread street protests. The nurses pay settlement starts unravelling, as government rules restraining the staff nurse grading improvements led to the unions boycotting further talks and ministers coming back from holiday. Comedian Ken Dodd is committed for trial on charges of criminal tax evasion. A security guard is stabbed to death in a robbery and a window cleaner, who came to his aid, still in intensive care with another knife wound. In Northern Ireland, a man was shot dead by police at a vehicle check point and a loaded hand gun and mask were recovered from the scene. Rain forecast tonight.