A late night and morning, on a windy and showery day, but breakfast together before I settled down to correspondence and then my own salmon salad lunch before Di arrived back from Bedford and I could take the Range Rove on business to Huntingdon. More work on the other ward FOCUS newsletters before hearing of the latest air display crash killing two pilots and downing their Phantoms during practice. The ‘Ocean Odyssey’ rig is freed from the flaming well and stories emerge of the bravery of the radio operator who stayed behind and perished. Another IRA bomb attack on Ulster Police
Late to bed again and slept very soundly so that I did not want to wake up at 7am. Breakfast together and then Di went off to Bedford as I first read the morning mail and papers and then settled down to write some more Ward letters and other correspondence, which took me until lunchtime. Pete was out there clearing another shrub bed and preparing for the building excavations next Monday. Lunch made by myself of salmon salad and then Di returned and I could use the Range Rover to go off to Huntingdon to deliver my council mail and also my latest letter of reply to the Hunts Post. A Tory councillor lady is attacking me, and I think I presented the perfect counter this afternoon. I worked on the two items that had been promised for the Offords & Buckden newsletters and then, this evening, I delivered them to Percy and collected the remaining delivery sheets from my Paxton helpers.
The news this evening is of another aeroplane display crash as the two pilots are killed in an RAF phantom, but thankfully this time the accident happened during rehearsals for an air display rather than during it. The latest North Sea oil fire is still raging but the rig Ocean Odyssey has been moved away from the site by dynamiting its mooring wires. It seems that the missing radio operator stayed behind to send SOS messages. From help calls received it seemed that he had stay behind for at least 10 minutes after the 66 escaped. Now the rig will be search for his body. Another IRA motor bomb attack today on Ulster police. There were strong winds today and showers, but the ground is still quite dry and hard such that the lawns actually benefited from the rain.