More work on The Lady’s sliding roof, using my new cover to fend off the showers and then hosting a gang of children in our swimming pool on a cooler and fresher day. Mum is now also suffering from Shingles. Iran/UK negotiations over the release of Western hostages are slow and tortuous, the nurses pay row is not helped by all four health minsters being on holiday at the same time and sad funerals on both sides of the Ulster troubles take place. The Sudan is still flooded after the Nile bursts its banks and over 100 are shot dead as violence is also used to try and quell the Burma revolution and anarchy
Slept soundly last night, which was cooler and fresher than of late. Even so, Di could not sleep because she was too hot, as I had nearly closed the French windows. A bit slow to get going and then Gary had joined us for breakfast for the last time this holiday. Read today’s Financial Times, before and after the meal. After big falls in the US and Japan, the stock markets are steadying a little. Then out to start work on the boat, getting Gary to help me peel back the cover. Today, I finished much of the varnishing on the port side of the sliding roof and also prepared the running slot and sliding side door & glued on a hardwood strip as I intended. Had to go into St Neots for a 10mm straight router bit and met Percy Meyer in Fishers whilst there. For two days running he has dropped by to use my photocopier and each time he found me out and the house open and must wonder at my lack of security! I phoned my Dad this morning and asked after my Mum. He had let us know yesterday about her catching shingles, poor thing, which is very painful on one side of her face and eye.
I told Dad about Diana’s Auntie Bobby previously having it when she was poorly and recovering well afterwards. The weather was dull and spitting with rain at times today, but I had my 5x5 metre tarpaulin and the weather was good enough. Most of the rain had petered out across the country with the south west breeze. Daniel and Gary invited Claire and a friend to swim this afternoon and I had also asked a couple of young boys to come as well. Little Matthew James opposite had been running up and down Willow Close on his sister’s moped at the age of 12, and I had to stop him and offered him the alternative distraction to keep him out of trouble. Di’s visit to her sister-in-law, Chris, had to be aborted this afternoon, as Della was so bad with Katherine, she just had to leave early. The news today is of progress in Iran/UK negotiations over the western hostages, but the path to get them released seems a long and tortuous one. A British senior diplomat is despatched for Iran. Last night a senior Iranian church man was received by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but now it is down to the British Foreign Office to melt the ice. In the row over the nurses pay settlement, confusion over the disagreement as the management now confirm that the majority of ward sisters would be on the higher grade. There remains a strong suspicion of the government’s guidelines and, after a one hour strike at lunchtime today, nurses at a London hospital called a one-day strike for August 20th. After Thatcher’s surprise summer reshuffle, all four health ministers were caught on holiday at the same time. The funeral of the latest army victim of the IRA, who was killed in bed at barracks in Inglis. Also the funeral of a young Catholic, gunned down by Protestant extremists. Burma continues to descend into revolution and anarchy, as demonstrators firing buildings and police stations and the army having now shot 100 dead. The Sudan is still under flood water after a week and the Nile is rising again from upstream rainfall. I was quite late to bed, writing my journal and watching television to relax after a tiring few days.