Diana’s Birthday – Diana recovers on a cold and frosty day and after receiving her birthday bouquet whilst I continue feeding the family and seeing Debbie’s improved horse-riding at the stables, trotting and cantering without hanging on. UK inflation is now on the way up again and sterling falls, Barcelona are awarded the 1992 Olympic Games and student demonstrators prevent Enoch Powell speaking at Bristol University
Slept well, reconciled with Diana on a cold and frosty night and Di got the morning drinks. I got showered, shaved and dressed, as the children really taxed Di’s patience and woke Della up to join in the den. Di took to her bed again and I had to help get the children to school again. Urged Daniel out, to get him out of the way, and then got Debbie across the road to join Pat and Amie. Joan soon arrived and took over Della, so that I could get down to some paperwork in the office. I sent letters to all and sundry on my financial affairs and took phone calls from Lifesure and Marshalls to organise the collection of our new Range Rover next Tuesday.
Took up a coffee to Di when her bouquet arrived and cheered her up a little as a result. More deskwork and Joan made me some soup, bread and a pot of tea, then put Della to bed before leaving. I paid her the money for her and Pete’s work for the week and then settled back to my work, as both Della and Diana slept for the afternoon. I went to get Debbie from school and then took her to horse riding at the Fitzpatrick Riding School. She rode Barbie today and improved her performance by not holding on during trotting and then cantering around the school. Then on to St Neots, where I left Debbie sitting in the car, listening to a story on cassette, whilst I popped over to the fish and chip shop for some fried plaice and sausages with our chips for tea. Once home, Di was up and Daniel back from school and we enjoyed our take-away tea and a chocolate cake to follow. We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Diana, as she blew out the four candles and, when relit, each family member did the same in turn. I took Daniel out to help me with the games lawn path laying and then a succession of neighbours visited to see the effects of our site clearance and were most impressed. In to check Daniel’s schoolwork and then to light the fire in the lounge and write my journal. The news today is of economic inflation rising again for the first time in 9 months and this does not take account of the recent rise in interest rates. On the foreign exchanges, sterling lost a cent against the dollar, before improving later and the value against the basket of currencies was near the record low. The Committee (International Olympic Committee) has chosen Barcelona for the 1992 games and Birmingham were only 5th in the ballot. They will try again for 1996, but this is the first ever Olympic Games for Spain and is thus quite a fair decision. The Israelis rescue a military crewman, after one of their war planes was shot down during a raid over the Lebanon. Enoch Powell is deprived of an opportunity to speak at Bristol University by extreme students, who disagree with his past racial policies. Another cold night is in prospect, but a breeze may keep away the frost.