After calling room service for our morning drinks, and enjoying our bath and hotel restaurant breakfast, we left the Swiss Cottage Holiday Inn for Chelsea where we viewed the opening day of the Harrods sale before checking out a London garden centre and a garden ornament specialist, buying only a tatty banana plant. Home and then over to Cambridge to seek help with my computer problems and to collect our girls. A special Lockerbie air crash memorial service was televised in the US and the UK and, despite the officiating minister calling for justice not retaliation, news soon emerged of the US shooting down two Libyan fighter planes. More controversial plans are announced for hospitals to opt out of the National Health Service and to abolish Local Council Regional Health Authority involvement whilst offering tax incentives for private practice.
I was the first to awake this morning, calling down to room service for our mornin. g drinks. We enjoyed our privacy first and, after refreshment, took turns in the bath. Soon we were having breakfast in the restaurant and then we packed and set off from the Swiss Cottage Holiday Inn for Chelsea. We had planned to look at plants but first went to the opening day of the Harrods sale. It was not too crowded. There was a good China sale but they did not have any of the type that we wanted (again!). We saw some interesting furniture and were impressed with the local old colonial settees and chairs.
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Later, we went to the central London garden centre describing itself as having ‘the largest conservatory and range of plants’ and found the place very disappointing. We also had a look at a garden ornament specialist but, despite the presence of a couple of garden temples, Diane I could not agree on anything of interest. We did go to the Chelsea garden centre and bought a tatty banana plant at the knockdown price of £7.50, reduced from £19 odd. Then home and to rush over to Cambridge to seek help with my computer problems. I eventually left it there and brought our girls home. In the news today, a special memorial service was featured for the victims of the Lockerbie air crash. It was televised in the US and the UK. The service was attended by political leaders and the officiating minister, the Moderator of the Gen assembly of the Church of Scotland, called for justice and not retaliation as that was an inhumane and escalating spiral. As this service took place, there was an attack launched from the US assess aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy which shot down two Libyan fighter planes. In Tripoli, there is angry condemnation of this attack. The US had been sabre-rattling over a suspected chemical weapons plant and US Pres Reagan had talked of ‘punishment’ of the Lockerbie culprits. The US deny any premeditation and say the exchange was because the US planes felt threatened. The US and UK governments now support Moscow as a venue for the 1991 conference on human rights, quoting real progress the USSR is made to overcome previous objections. The UK government has announced plans for certain hospitals to ‘opt out’ of the National Health Service and to abolish local council involvement with local and regional health authorities. There are to be tax incentives to encourage older people to go to private practice.