More relaxing start to this blustery day with Della and then moving my office before another long session on my alarm cables and accessories; taking time to order more components. This as Winnie Mandela is arrested again for travelling to Soweto, more British soldiers being posted to Ulster, and Israel being constrained as it is confirmed that the PLO did not set the recent bombs
A much better night and in a more relaxed frame of mind, when I was woken at 8.00am with my morning tea and newspaper. I manage to read the paper almost completely before a latish breakfast at 9.00am. Then to get showered, shaved and dressed by 10.00am. Time to go out and feed the ducks and doves and then I make the morning coffee again to keep Della happy. She seems to regard it as a regular event now. A much brighter day, but still very cold and I am in a quandary about what to do today. The river has gone down dramatically, but the boats seem to be safe. After a lot of dithering and some lunch with the boys of hamburgers, I get them to help me move my office from the old baby’s room to the old lounge.
Then to bring in the emulsion paint from the garage. By this time tea and then, after, I don a warm jacket and hat and scramble around all three lofts laying the cables for all my fire detectors and future alarm pushes. This included drilling holes so as to run cables down from the lofts to two alarm pushes near the front doors. I had called another alarm company this morning and ordered two batteries, three fire pushes, a power supply for my autodial and a warning buzzer and so I hope to get them tomorrow morning. By late evening, tired from crawling and climbing, I relaxed in our nicely furnished lounge to update my journal and listen to the 10.00pm news. First story is of the re-arrest of Winnie Mandela in South Africa, for the second time in 8 days, for driving towards her home in Soweto, from which she is banned. The Westland helicopter board has now agreed to circulate shareholders with details of the European bid and will meet again by mid-January to decide further which bid to put to the vote. More British soldiers are to be sent to Northern Ireland following the bombing of police stations and IRA threats to contractors rebuilding them. It has now been concluded that the Palestinian airport terrorists were not from the PLO, but from an extremist faction called Abu Nidal. Israel is delaying her reprisals under pressure from American diplomacy. US/Russian relations are deteriorating again since the Reagan/Gorbachev summit. The Americans have held a nuclear test and both parties are now trading moderate, but measured, insults. The weather has turned blustery this evening, with some flurries of snow, but it is forecast to get warmer tomorrow, but still with a fresh southerly wind.