Daniel with his friends in August 1985
Daniel with his friends in August 1985

Some attention for Di during a warm and unsettled night and then we find that Daniel has been taking money from my wallet and spending it but his punishment had to wait as we were expecting guests to go boasting with him today as South African riots and deaths continue with a march to Mandela’s prison is prevented and the stock and foreign exchanges have to close. One aspect of the train strike is averted but checks on Pratt and Whitney engines on other 737’s reveal large combustion chamber cracks.

A poor night that was too warm, but eventually I took an interest in Di and then slept better afterwards. Daniel woke us up by creeping in at 6.30am and so all awake to our morning drinks and, for me, the Economist and Financial Times. Debbie made the breakfast and we all came down to a variable drinks mix (orange & lemon) and another meal of toast for me. Then a big row as, to our shock and horror, we find out that £30 is missing from my wallet and eventually Daniel admits to taking it and buying speakers and tapes with it. This spoils our whole start to the day and, to make it worse, Diana mislays £50 of her money but thankfully finds it in her car later on. We carry on with today’s schedule unchanged, because Jonathan Bloom is coming over for lunch and, with Gary and Paul there as usual, we do not want to spoil the day, but resolve to punish him from tomorrow on.

Eventually, up and to the office, where I spend a couple of hours making up my accounts and reconciling my bank and building society accounts. Having determined the damage, Diana goes off into town to transfer the money for me and I settle to the process of continuing to copy the video films. I have created new master copies, retaining the originals for safety. We will take further copies to use on a day-to-day basis from the masters, which have already been edited to remove the faults. Lunch and then more time on the twin tasks of copying videos and on the erection of my wire lattice. The day fine, but not very warm, but perfect for working. The boys spent the day in the Blue Peter dinghy, all four of them loading it down rather heavily, but then, after tea, they cleaned up Bill’s day tripper in anticipation of being able to have use of it soon. I tried to phone Bill in vein today and will try again tomorrow. Debbie had lunch with Amie, but got into trouble with Pat for not eating it and was justifiably refused the requested sweet afterwards. News today is of a further deterioration in South African affairs. The march to the prison of Nelson Mandela was thwarted by police and troops with whips and riot gear, but in all incidents another six blacks were killed. The miners strikes are due to take place soon with only one company, Anglo-American, being spared and now the foreign exchanges have taken flight and both the stock and foreign exchanges are closed for a few days at least. In a big surprise, the NUR guards vote against a national strike over one-man operation of trains. The checks to on for Boing 737’s and Pratt and Witney engines and three from British Airways are pulled out of service after they fund large cracks in the engine combustion chambers. Late to bed after some more video taping and to sleep with all of the top floor windows open tonight as the evening had turned warm and close