I was storing our Blue Peter dinghy for the winter today
I was storing our Blue Peter dinghy for the winter today

Typical Sunday with an English breakfast and a Roast Beef lunch as I carried on working on the garage and then putting The Blue Peter dinghy away for the winter as both Daniel and Debbie had friends round to visit them. Nigel Mansell wins the Portuguese Grand prix today and the East/West talks creep towards a positive conclusion but English football is in trouble again after yesterday’s violence at the Bradford vs Leeds match

 

A rather restless night, as first I was too hot and then too cold! Awoke first and, to avoid the customary argument, decided to make the morning drinks. Sat in bed with Di supping her coffee and reading the Bedfordshire magazine and me writing yesterday’s journal. There is a good piece in the former about Shefford and its 11th October fairs, which we will remember well from our time living there at 24 Northbridge Street. Showered, shaved and the only one dressed (besides Di) for our Sunday breakfast of fried egg, bread and bacon. As we finished and I was reading the paper, a young girl knocked to play with Deborah, then Steve arrived to spend the day with Daniel and Linda’s boyfriend turned up to collect Emma’s clothes that were left here the other day.

To the doves, who fed a little and then to start painting the garage again, on a fine sunny day. A long morning putting the undercoat on the outer garage door and amazing how long it took. A later lunch, but I came in to help prepare the dining room and lay up with our best, as usual. A long meal, as the gas pressure was down this morning and the beef was late to be ready. Still, we enjoyed it, but it was about 4.00pm before I had finished washing up and putting everything away. Then out to put the final coat of white gloss on the door and window frames before dark. Put away the Blue Peter dinghy at dusk, the boys getting it out of the water and cleaning it inside and out, before we put it on the trailer and covered it up for the winter. In to a tea of pilchards and brown buttered bread, then took some fruit into the lounge and watched the last episode of ‘The Monocled Mutineer’ and then the recorded highlights of today’s memorable win by Nigel Mansell in the Portuguese Grand Prix and is now 10 pts up. Other news today was of agreement at last between NATO and The Warsaw Pact over the size of notification of troop and tank movement. In Stockholm, we had the first major security accord since 1979 and it is aimed at reducing the risk of war through misunderstanding. The arms control preparations themselves progressed between Foreign Secretaries, even though they were still muttering about Daniloff. It seems that there might be a solution to this latter issue in talks next week. Attention this weekend has been on the Liberals, who start their conference next week, and the problems facing leader, David Steel, in maintaining unity over nuclear defence with the SDP. More trouble for Association Football, as an inquiry is launched into yesterday’s violence at the Bradford vs Leeds match. A chip van was overturned, catching fire, and then youths stoned a fire engine as it tried to put it out. The weather forecast is for more fine weather tomorrow, after the fog clears, and I should be able to get the doors glossed on the outer garage.