Planning the future of how to service my Reliant, completing the purchase of my two registration numbers VXD-1 and YXD-1 and preparing for the arrival of my Rolls Royce. Della caused mayhem at lunch with spillages. Some more EU agricultural support measures, The RCN are balloting members on strike measures but the Seamen and their employers are sensibly settled their differences.
Slow to get going this morning and the children complained that I arrived an hour late for breakfast (!). Just wheat flakes to look forward to (actually some melon as well). I read today’s newspaper afterwards and received a few more interesting things in the post for a change. There was the catalogue and price list from the Austin 7 people and the latest circulars and ballot papers from the SDP. I then cleared up my office, packed the history files and things away, and worked on the parts catalogue, planning an order of things to get the Reliant engine in the best condition. Also turned round an insurance non-quotation for the Corniche, the AA delaying their reply for the wrong reason. Heard about VXD1 today and agreed to buy it for £2100 + the £80 transfer fee.
I will put it on the Range Rover and the other on the Corniche. Popped out and took the roof ladder rack and waterproof seat covers off of the Range Rover and packed them away. Then Diana arrived back from the church coffee morning and we set off to the Happy Eater for lunch. It was quite a trial for Di this morning. She set off with the girls in the blustery wind and showers, Della grazed her knee and kicked up a right fuss at the event – knocking over a cup of juice all over the cake table. An old lady jumped up and spilt her coffee over a neighbour....... A fair lunch and then I drove to Sandy and picked up an index of the Reliant Club information on Reliant vans. On to St Neots for some shopping and then home. This afternoon I typed up a Reliant service schedule from information in the Handbook and Austin 7 book. Tea of a large dish of prawns, as Deborah did not want many, and then a relaxing evening watching a televised repeat of James Bond’s ‘Moonraker’ film and studying the Reliant electrical charts. I still can’t work out why the battery does not charge and will look further tomorrow to see if I can identify the control box. The news tonight is of the reaction of the Eurodeal on farm quotas and prices. Thatcher is seen to have given way quite a bit and Britain’s farmers are relieved. The Royal College of Nursing is balloting its members on the subject of introducing strike action into its constitution. The political spotlight has passed over on to the Young Conservative Conference, where there is a leadership battle between right and left that could prove crucial. It now looks as if there is agreement between seamen and employers operating the Isle of Man ferries. The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a story in The Observer newspaper that there was a breakdown in the coding system of a Polaris submarine’s nuclear reactor. It seems the expedient of switching on an emergency generator averted a catastrophe.