The whole family awake early at the beginning of a busy day with Daniel off to school for an Applied Maths test and the rest of us driving to Bedford in the Rolls-Royce to collect the Range Rover after its service and repairs. A little time left to work on the conservatory guttering before a family lunch at the Sandy Happy Eater before off to Kimbolton School for the ‘Autumn Fayre’ this evening, re-fixing some shower room tiles before my journal and to bed. Thatcher refuses to accept defeat over the IRA extradition despite widespread European opposition
We were all awake very early this morning having planned lots of things to do. Myself down to breakfast after Diana and the girls had already eaten but Daniel had yet to arrive. He had to go to school this morning for an Applied Maths test; but the rest of us were first going to Bedford. I drove them in the Rolls-Royce and then stayed in the car with Della whilst Diana took Debbie to have a passport photographs taken in one of those automatic booths. Then we went to Marshalls in the Goldington Road (the time still before 8:30am) to collect the Range Rover. I let Di have that to take the girls swimming whilst I drove the Rolls-Royce home, stopping off at Alec Norman garages to ask after the exhaust part that I have needed to order for ages. At least the Range Rover is running well now:
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The rear shock absorbers are replaced; the car has had a 24,000-mile service, we have had the engine adjusted to run ‘unleaded’ (lead reduced) petrol and the performance seems fine. I had 2 to 3 hours left this morning and so I worked on the conservatory guttering. I took down the balcony support first (hoping that the new brick pillar is supporting the balcony adequately) and this left room for the guttering to run right round the back and join up with the existing downpipe and reach the soak-away. Had to break off at 12:30pm and quickly get changed to collect Daniel for lunch. This time, we went to the Happy Eater at Sandy. Quite shocking to see the adjacent filling station had been destroyed in a conflagration recently. Two cars collided, and one left the road to crash into the pumps and then ignited the petrol which burnt the whole thing to the ground! After this, we went to Kimbolton School for the ‘Autumn Fayre’ where we did our bit and bought a few things. I saw the bursar, Terry Howard, a Tory HDC Council rival of ours, but did not speak to him socially. Once home, we had a very short while before dark and I worked both before and after dusk until teatime, securing my new guttering run. It then poured with rain to provide quite an adequate test! This evening, I sat and watched the TV for a while, rather tired, and then actually got down to the overdue task of re-fixing the shower room tiles and with waterproof grout, an outcome which pleased Diana. There is still the extractor fan to install which will be more difficult. My Journal and then to bed relatively earlier than of late. News today is of the aftermath of Thatcher’s Euro-rows. Faced with differences with the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and the European Courts, will she never realise that her views are wrong?