The Reliant van out for more work today
The Reliant van out for more work today

It was a dry and calm morning with more colder and wetter weather forecast as I started buying Austin 7 parts for my Reliant before a lunch delayed by our prior feeding of our children’s friends and then an afternoon working on the Reliant, greasing all of the moving suspension parts between the scheduling of more Little Paxton history interviews. The aftermath of the RUC killing of an innocent man leads to problems for the Anglo/Irish talks, yesterday’s aviation ‘near miss’ leads to tightening of safety measures and Scottish Electricity will buy imported coal

A better night, but still woke a bit early. Showered, shaved and dressed in time for breakfast with the family and Daniel's friends. The post had arrived, but contained nothing of interest. This morning I sat in my office and studied the Austin 7 parts lists, put together an order, and telephoned the suppliers with it. Once Di got back from taking all the children swimming, I took the car to Huntingdon and the motor accessory shops. I bought a side valve lifter, a combined fuel can/tool box for the Reliant, and a dozen new style brake nipples to make the task of lubrication more practical. Then home to wait my turn for lunch, as the table was full of children; Daniel and his two friends, Gary and Steve, Debbie & Della and Emma and Holly! Di and I had to eat at a second sitting! This afternoon I worked on the Reliant, replacing all of the grease nipples and using the best part of a tin of grease on lubrication parts that had been neglected hitherto.

This process took quite a long time, as several junctions were seized and grease needed to be forced through. Then the process of oiling linkages and moving parts and much shuffling about under the van to do it. Soon it was time for tea and then I had to use the lantern to go and put away the ducks in the dark. I heard from Frank Hall tonight, who had seen Mrs Beeson today and arranged Wednesday as a date for the three of us to meet. Tonight I had a young couple round to ask about the history of Little Paxton for a project. Then I relaxed and rested a while watching the TV and writing up my journal. The news today is of the reverberations over the killing of an innocent man at an Irish border checkpoint. The RUC man claims that the shooting was an accident, but there has been a history of his victimisation by the security forces. This latest chapter in the Anglo/Irish crisis of relationship has ended with the Republic holding their own enquiry, although the incident was in Ulster. After yesterday’s ‘near miss’ there has been an announcement of stricter air traffic control, that will lead to more delays for the summer holiday flights because of ‘flow management’. The Brazilian death toll has risen to 250-odd and still searches take place for missing people amongst the floods and ruins. The Scottish Electricity Board has announced plans to buy imported coal, despite the dependency upon it of the Scottish coal industry. The weather has continued still and dry today, but colder weather and rain are forecast to come soon.