Monitoring the building work again after another slow start on a very cold day with slight rain after which I fitted some alarm contacts and security bolts to the new doors this afternoon. Then we drop the Range Rover off to Bedford for a service and ordered a Christmas tree on our way back. A multiple collision blocked the A1 today such that Di had to use the swollen Hail Weston Ford to get home before she joined me for a St Neots History Society social evening. Five Russian robbers flew a hijacked airliner to Israel today. Following the extradition impasse, there were strong exchanges between Thatcher and the Belgian and Irish prime ministers. Another US space shuttle is launched today with spy satellites aboard.
After being called late, I woke slowly this morning to start with and was the last to the breakfast table and had I not finished my wheat flakes before the carpenter arrived. He finished off the doors and glazing this morning and then built a sloping roof onto the pump house this afternoon. The bricklayer was back laying the planting beds boundary today and capping it with coping stones. He also laid the two missing bricks and then rendered and made good the floor areas which were missed by the floor-layers. The plumber/electrician and mate were also here, finishing the electrics and most of the pipework for the heating system. I got down to some work this afternoon, fitting the alarm contacts and security bolts to the new doors. We had dropped the Range Rover off to Bedford earlier for service and modification to use ‘leadfree’ petrol and then came back via Eaton Socon to order a Christmas tree from The Garden Centre by the River.
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This evening, Di and I went to the St Neots History Society social evening and took part in an amusing quiz and met the other members. The news today was of the prompt resignation and retirement of Judge Cassels, the judge who was at the centre of controversy earlier this week. He had let off a stepfather on probation (after assaulting his 12-year-old step-daughter) after commenting that the man’s wife’s pregnancy led her to be less receptive to his sexual needs. Five Russian robbers hijacked an airliner and flew to Israel today and were taken into custody after surrendering. Strong exchanges took place between Mr Martins, the Belgian Prime Minister, and Mrs Thatcher and then the Irish Premier, Charles Haughey, called off a meeting with her. The US space shuttle set off after a few days’ delays. The payload is secret but believed to be a night/cloud penetrating spy satellite. The British Steel sale went off all right today with modest oversubscription, but the offer is not the success that it had been hoped for. We could not collect the Range Rover today, as there was another pileup on the A1 here at Little Paxton blocking the carriageway and killing a driver and so Di had to bring Debbie back from Kimbolton via the rain-swollen Hail Weston Ford in the Rolls-Royce. Now 37 people have died in accidents on the A1 over the last four years. Today was fine but with slight rain and very cold.