South African Premier, PW Botha, retires after a stroke this day
South African Premier, PW Botha, retires after a stroke this day

I was recovering from feeling cold with a headache, after yesterday’s eyestrain, as I investigated the underfloor heating controls in the conservatory and fed my Koi on their antibiotic soaked pellets. Amongst calls on my answering machine, was one leading to a photo opportunity with the Ramply’s former campaign for getting Rampl(e)y Lane correctly named. Daniel gets an O-level equivalent pass in French today, but Debbie is riding school is due to close. The USSR starts withdrawing tactical weapons from Eastern Europe but the deportation of fugitive Viraj Mendis has been lost in the Court of Appeal today and the South African Premier, PW Botha, has had to step down after a stroke

This was the day which, despite my best intentions, did not produce very much progress on my history book. I woke feeling cold with a headache. After the eye-strain of yesterday’s screen-work, and the open door of my cold bedroom on a very frosty night, it took a few hours for the paracetamol tablets to remove the nuisance. I started late for breakfast and then went into the conservatory and played around with the under-floor heating controls, believing that the temperature sensor was not behaving itself. Sure enough, I found that the sensor had only been loosely taped to the pipe and so I experimented and ended up using copper wire to make a better bond and contact. I tried feeding the Koi on their antibiotic soaked pellets today and all except the Kohaku took them. That one is not feeding at the moment.

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There was a bevy of phone messages on my answering machine when I got back into my office and the remainder of a short morning was taken up with returning these calls. I spoke to Celia Chignell, a journalist with the Express, about my crusade of getting Rampl(e)y Lane correctly named and I will be photographed by the sign with the Ramply family tomorrow for next week’s newspaper. Percy Meyer came over to use my photocopier and gave me a young avocado pear seedling. In accordance with my plant book, I then cut the stem back to 5 inches removing all of the leaves thus giving him a shock! Lunch and then some correspondence with my Democrat party colleagues this afternoon. I am planning to use my successful involvement with the St Ives street name controversy to help resurrect their ambition as they used to be a Liberal Council with a mayor there once. It was late afternoon and evening before I had last updated and corrected my work of yesterday and printed it out afresh. Daniel had news of passing his French GCSE at grade C (an ‘O’-level equivalent pass) today which was a cause for celebration. We heard that Debbie’s riding school is closing down today, which is a shame. We thought of getting Debbie her own pony and I made an offer of £16,500 for 9 acres of Hillwell Furlong in Little Paxton for grazing. Diana sanded off her filled cracks in the playroom today and will be ready to paint next week. The news today is of the Soviet Foreign Minister stating the intention of the USSR to start withdrawing some tactical weapons from Eastern Europe. A legal fight against the deportation of fugitive Viraj Mendis has been lost in the Court of Appeal today when a bid to delay it to allow a judicial review was lost. The South African Premier, PW Botha, has had a stroke and his deputy has been sworn in as a result.