Continuing my work on the storm drain sump before it was time for Della’s birthday party later, for which Norma had come to help and then to resume work until dusk, having collected six more bags of cement for the concreting tomorrow. Mounting tension as East/West arms talks come to a head, the by-now usual bomb attack in Ulster and immigration falls after the curbing of the 1952 Commonwealth Citizen Agreement
A fair night and awoke early to shave and dress. Out to feed the doves and have a look round before breakfast on a fine, warm morning. Out to get started on the sump and used Pete’s help to dig out more of the debris at the bottom. I bailed out the water and shovelled mud into buckets and he emptied them for me. Being so low down we were below the new concrete block and so I dug out a trench alongside it and then excavated partially under it as well, before constructing the shuttering that was used to cast another block under and in front of the other. Then started the job of constructing two concentric squares of shuttering for the upper section. The concreting made me late for lunch with Di, Della and Di’s Mum and then I had to leap into the pool and shower, as I was all dusty and sweaty. Eventually ate and chatted to Di, whilst Di’s Mum took Della for a walk to keep her happy. Today was the day of Della’s party and Norma had come to help.
They had fine weather for games in the back garden. I rested after lunch for a couple of hours at the latter part of the day, watching cricket and tennis on TV. England got off to an appalling start against Pakistan today on a strange wicket. Lendl and Cash progress in the tennis and Miss Chris Evert-Lloyd lost to Martina Navratilova in the semi-final. Worked on my shuttering before and after tea until dusk, but still was a long way off finishing it. The task is to allow the inner work and outer work to be disassembled once the concrete has hardened – a real fabrication exercise. Drove the Range Rover over to Cosy Corner to collect six bags of cement and a pair of bolt cutters for the reinforcement mesh for tomorrow’s finale. Just showered and to bed, having no time for news or journal tonight. News was of mounting tension as the East/West arms talks came to a peak, and a bomb attack in Ulster as usual. Immigration is falling as a result of the 1952 Commonwealth Citizen curbs. Moors murderer, Ian Brady, has offered to help to find more of his former victim’s bodies.