Long yellow mood

In the early hours I finally finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I enjoyed it, and it makes me feel that everything links up somewhere and somehow, but really I don’t know how. I’ll have to reread it to really grasp it. . . .

At school there was the usual wind down to the end of term; we had a big assembly in which we laughed and made sick ‘cryptic’ comments which reduced us to stifled hilarity, but it was soon over and I felt nostalgic and sad because everyone was going home. School was empty . . . hard to describe.

I walked home with Tim, Jeremy and Colin, the sun casting a long yellow mood over everything. Dad hasn’t got his job and is very depressed and negative.

In the Falklands, much sabre-rattling and conflicting reports of an Argentinian invasion and good old British denials, but later the situation took a turn for the worse and it was confirmed that an invasion had taken place. It's the first British territory to be invaded since the Channel Islands in 1940. Three Argentinians have been killed.

Could this be a war situation? In every case, it's always the ordinary people who suffer because of governments and power politics. People should just be left alone to live their lives without interference. In the Falklands the interference is caused by the island oil reserves and Argentina’s domestic troubles. Surely the Islanders should owe allegiance to no one and should be ‘governed’ by no one but themselves?

It’s certainly exciting.

The nine o’clock news emphasized the seriousness of the crisis. More talk of war, talk of the possibility of naval battles, and a large “impressive” task force is to set sail for the Falklands. There’s a deeper side though: the superpowers could get involved and this could be the flashpoint for a wider conflict. Mum and Dad looked serious. . . .

I listened to Radio Moscow in the evening.