This record wet month still allowed us to have two blissful weeks cruising on The Lady; upstream to start with and then downstream through Godmanchester, Huntington, Houghton, Hemingford, and on to St Ives where I recovered from a bad cold and then Holywell, to chat to the eel fisherman, the walk to Needingworth, and then on to Ely to find pubs, Morris dancers and a swim in Paradise Pool. The next leg took us up the River Lark to Prickwillow and then via Littleport up the River Wissey to Hilgay before ending up at Denver Sluice. After this, The Cam to Clayhithe and the Bridge Hotel and on to Cambridge and back from that base with a walk to Waterbeach. We then re-traced our route back up the Great Ouse and home to Paxton. Debbie is now accomplished at her recorder-playing and horse-riding and Della enjoyed the party we laid on for her birthday this month and is growing and quite the little lady now. A few church and other visits with the family but the holiday interrupted my council, history and financial work but I was doing well as a councillor and persuaded Peter Wilmer to stand for the County Council. The main domestic news was of the North Sea oil terminal tragedy, where Echo Bravo, an older oil rig, exploded killing 1-200 people, with only 60/70 surviving as a hundred and fifty men were trapped screaming and roasting to death with no means of escape. Texan Red Adair’s team finally put out the fires and stemmed the leaks. Thatcher ploughs ahead with all manner of controversial changes to the DHSS, the Education System and the economic management of the country as interest rates rose to a dizzy 11 ½ %. Huge delays for air travellers highlight the lack of UK capacity and the British prison system is in a mess. The US Air Force admits to shooting down an Iranian airliner, with 290 people on board, in a ‘target mistake’, which causes Ayatollah Khomeini to declare an all-out war with peace talks stalling. Amongst bombings in South Africa, the 70th birthday of Nelson Mandela was marked by an appeal for Archbishop Tutu for his release from jail, Seve Ballesteros won the Open Golf Championship in the ‘best performance of his life’
This was a month of very wet weather – the second wettest July in 100 years – when it seemed to rain just about every day with some days and nights of torrential rain and occasional thunderstorms. When the weather did brighten up, showers and heavy rain were never far away. This prevailed until the very end of the month which became sunny and warm but blustery too. Fortunately, The Lady withstood this watery onslaught and had not leaked and so, this month we enjoyed our fortnight on the river, though it seems strange explaining to people that we went to Huntingdonshire for our holiday! There was a delay setting off due to business and so I had to reassure Diana that our slightly delayed and curtailed boating holiday would still be enjoyable for the two weeks and it was. I had to spend some time working on The Lady sealing some fuel and cooling hose leaks and then, after reconnecting the heating system after a winter layoff, I detected a boat heating system problem but, after failing to get LH Jones to come and attend to this, I spent a tiring but successful day repairing my ARDIC boat heater myself! All this done, we loaded up The Lady and set off upstream through the Paper Mill lock and moored at Coneygeare for the night. Next up to Eaton Socon and then on to Tempsford after a further rather unsettled night. We had some nice meals with Daniel’s guests joining us, refreshments at the garden centre and then a meal at a very crowded Anchor pub. An easier day of weather for cruising and enjoying time aboard The Lady then followed with just the odd shower as Dan and Tom joined us on board for breakfast and the children playing on the swings until I cruised to St Neots Town Quay for some shopping, lunch at the Cross Keys and then the long walk to swimming at Ernulf pool. The cruise back downstream followed, with us mooring at our own Little Paxton moorings to collect some forgotten items before we cruised on to Buckden Marina for water and fuel and then on to Godmanchester for the night.
An enjoyable night at Godmanchester, with the children playing and me fishing before a misunderstanding developed with Di over coffee and cakes! Then cruising to Huntingdon where the noise from the neighbouring Huntingdon A604 by-pass was an issue, before we set off in improving weather to the village of Houghton where we moored and enjoyed drinks and cakes at the little Millside Cottage guest house. Then on via Hemingford to St Ives to moor at our favourite Waits Quay where we could rest and clean The Lady. My cold started then, got steadily worse and I ended the day tired, achy and shivery. Even so, I struggled through my morning routine, joined the family for lunch at Tooks in St Ives High Street and then navigated The Lady downstream to The Ferry Boat Inn at Holywell where eel fisherman, Tom Arnold, and his men were reed cutting and stacking but had no success with their eel nets. After a further very poor night of ill health, I was somewhat better the next morning and fit enough for a walk to Holywell church and then to Needingworth for ice cream, milk and bread. We then left the children to bed on board as I took Diana to the restaurant for a meal. I was feeling well enough to do some fishing first thing in the morning, caught a few before breakfast and then continued our cruise afterwards to Ely where Daniel and I enjoyed the chandlers and the Morris Dancers as we met the girls for lunch at Bonnet’s Restaurant and watched the revellers near to The Cutter Inn. Later, we walked up the hill to the Paradise pool in Ely for a swim, some more shopping and then morning coffee in the old Oast House to the sound of more Morris men dancing. We set off downstream and turned up the River Lark, stopping at Prickwillow for a tea of scones and tea cakes and a visit to the local playground for the kids and an evening fishing for me without success. A pleasurable night there to find Prickwillow Pottery open the following morning to be able to buy a splendid Great Crested Grebe ornament. Then on to Littleport for water and fuel before cruising up the River Wissey to Hilgay and the head of the navigation before the cruise back down The River Wissey to Hilgay for some shopping and finally downstream to Denver Sluice for an early lunch at the pub. We traced our footsteps to stop at Ely for supplies before finally cruising up the River Cam to The Bridge Hotel at Clayhithe where I took Di to dinner and saw leading Tory Geoffrey Archer and family who were also dining there. A good night at Clayhithe and then a day trip and back to Cambridge via Baits Bite Lock where Daniel’s friends join us and we had lunch at the familiar Copper Kettle. A slow start to the day and then a long walk to Waterbeach which had changed since last time we were there but was a still pleasant enough place to eat ice creams under a beech tree. Then back to The Lady and the cruise down the Cam through Bottisham Lock and to stop at a rural pub for lunch. The weather brightened a little for our cruise to The Pike and Eel and on to the Twenty Pence Inn for the night after which the rain came but then the girls enjoyed Ely Cathedral before the rain came that evening On to Pope’s Corner and up the Old West River and on through Hermitage Lock and to our favourite Waits Quay mooring where The Lady celebrated her 2,000th milestone in her Cambridge birthplace. An uncomfortable night aboard The Lady moored up at the Waites Quay but a convenient spot from which to buy some local papers, set off in the dinghy to LH Jones for some fuel and other items and then the walk to the St Ivo centre for swimming after lunch at the Welcome Café. Surprised to find Huntingdon District Council colleagues at the pool but it was their recreation committee meeting day. The last day of our very enjoyable boating holiday cruising back home after coffee and lunch in Huntingdon and then the huge task un-packing and carrying our things off the boat. We enjoyed our first day back in our own bed even if that meant catching up on stowing equipment and belongings and attending to household chores. Apart from the cruise, the children’s school and exams are over for now and they are enjoying the freedom of their school holiday – and the company of many friends to match. Daniel has become interested in girls but is a bit at a loss to work out how to deal with them. They keep coming around, as if asking for a baby or a dog and wanting ‘Daniel to come for a walk’! He often had Steve and Gary round swimming. The girls start their holiday swimming tuition soon, Debbie is now quite accomplished with her recorder and horse riding and played the former without nerves to a large family audience one afternoon. I was busy, but Di spent the whole day at Kimbolton School for Debbie’s summer sports day and took the Brownies on the butterfly walk but I was the one to take Debbie horse-riding where I met Cllr Smith (Fiona’s dad) laying concrete in the yard one day. Della is growing both physically and emotionally and is quite the little lady now. Della’s Party needed a little preparation; setting up a bouncy castle, chairs and a slide for which the rain just managed to stay away. Unfortunately, Di is still struggling a stone overweight, but her family are all well; the older ones quite healthy for their advanced years but I have hardly seen any of my family, which I regret. We did have a big summer party with 7/8 cars bringing lots of guests. The ladies and girls enjoyed the pool and the men the croquet and bowls lawn. As by this time, we were regular attendees at St James’s Church, and we both took the girls to join the Rev Peter Lewis for the start of a treasure trail and a barbeques hamburger at the end and on to my manor at Chilford to visit the Zoo before home to find a sad and distressed Marilyn waiting for us. After another slow start to the day, and a fine cooked breakfast we made a combined trip shopping to the Eaton Socon garden centre for wiring and posts and afterwards, to erect a fence to keep the ducks off the lawn and the bowls out of the river. With all this activity, I had understandably been a bit rudderless as far as administration was concerned. The holiday interrupted my progress with work and it was all I could do to get up to date with financial affairs and Council work, and the history book hardly had a look in! The house is fine, but the conservatory is not yet started. We intend to do the base work for this in September and erect the structure in October, but we shall see. My cars and boats were not really getting the time and attention that they needed until I got back. At least my work as a Councillor is meeting with success, which is a satisfaction to me. One afternoon, I was printing out some 30 letters about Redlands and then delivering them by bike before I went to a history lecture about Britain’s furniture store. Another morning at my desk, hatching up a Little Paxton village development plan and dealing with more calls in Council business and then an evening attending a frustrating HND Planning Committee Meeting before home to my journal again and another when Peter Wilmer from Great Staughton arrived to accompany me and Percy Meyer, to Cambridge to the Cambridge SLD meeting. Always more time was needed as I caught up with correspondence, but I bought a wreath for Edie Smith’s funeral and then tried to engage Mr Jeeves, the Little Paxton Primary School Headmaster, about the new admission policies before joining Mike Pope for the parents’ evening before going on to the Parish Council meeting to hear about complaints of playing field vandalism. The odd morning on constituency matters and the Redlands gravel extraction meeting, trying to get Rampl(e)y Lane names properly and then, having prepared my speech, the drive to Southoe where I opened the village fete, judged the contests and drew the raffle. Another, where I attended a poorly-run HDC council meeting before spending the evening at a Priory Doom meeting. A further evening a Little Paxton planning meeting to carry on encouraging them to write a village plan. The good news was of Peter Wilmer agreeing to stand as our County Council candidate before my first meeting of Council this afternoon where I was photographed with others and then went straight to see Mike Pope to plan Peter’s County Council elections. Tory HDC councillors are pilloried for accepting a paid visit to Paris, as I pressed them on their public car parking ban and then on to Huntingdon for an HDC reception and opening by John Major of the Ermine Business Park. After my boating holiday, I did have a practical day cleaning the Rolls Royce and then the Range Rover and another mending the kitchen door and servicing the ATCO lawn mower which I used to cut the games lawn. I hosted a visit from my river-bank man, Mr Larkin, and then two Koi experts from Avenue Fisheries about my new Koi pool as well as Charles Frost for a meeting to complete my conservatory order. I struggled with my April 5th 1988 Financial Summary and with my financial affairs and the timing of forestry expenditure for tax purposes became a priority but I still kept up with events as I found time to sift through papers, press cuttings and news. The main news was of a North Sea oil terminal tragedy, where Echo Bravo, an older oil rig, exploded killing 1-200 people, with only 60/70 surviving with the tragedy made worse by its effect of reducing by 10% the UK’s oil production. A hundred and fifty men were trapped screaming and roasting to death with no means of escape and then came the protests from workers on other rigs about lack of safety measures offshore. Texan Red Adair attended the stricken Piper Alpha site trying to plug the leaking oil wells and all attempts to plug the leaking oil wells were at first thwarted by the conditions and wind direction but at last he reported that the worst well had been plugged and he finally plugs all the Piper Alpha oil leaks. There followed a commemorative service for the victims which was very touching. Elsewhere, the world is now on holiday, but I could only hope opposition politicians will give this frightful Mrs Thatcher a better run for her money in September when they return. Such moves as she makes on Education, Local Government, and Taxation make freedom decline and more authoritarian and central government grow to be the normality. She does not seem to believe in local government. She is spending her summer holidays touring the Far East – time she had a family holiday and turned more into a human being. A fortnight in a Blackpool boarding house would get her back on track with the other half of the nation she appears to forget exists. Even so, the Tories win Kensington narrowly in a by-election. Chancellor Nigel Lawson is getting ‘support’ from Thatcher as she is rumoured to bring back Alan Waters as adviser and interest rates rose to a huge 11 ½ % as the interest base rate was hiked up another ½ % to 9% fuelling fears of a property crash. The stock market drifts lower too and the deregulated building societies are now lending money for all purposes, fuelling a spending boom. Another large national trade deficit will lead to yet higher interest rates. Paddy Ashdown wins the SLD leadership contest by a landslide. The government wants to sell off Short Brothers and Harland’s, Ulster’s largest manufacturer and employer. Leon Brittan, former disgraced Cabinet Minister, is to replace Lord Cockfield as one of Britain’s two European Commissioners, because the latter has shown himself too independent and pro-European and Thatcher tries to drown out the controversy over these controversial European Commissioners sackings. Details then emerge of the break up for ideological reasons of the DHSS as Labour attack the government for underfunding the National Health Service on its 40th birthday and the Commons Social Services Committee has warned against radical change for the NHS and Devon patients have been overdosed with radio therapy in error. Thankfully the government is defeated twice in the Lords over charges for eye sight tests and dental check charges as back-benchers rebel and the Commons Energy Committee criticises the government’s plans for ‘privatising’ the electricity industry and the Education Reform Act reforms education without funding it properly. Thatcher now wants to privatise the Remand Centres and has cancelled the HOTEL space research programme, which is a shame, but the police get an 8 ½ % wage rise as Thatcher keeps them sweet for past and future protest suppression. London police crackdown on another London drug ring; two men are shot dead in South London on one occasion and three people are murdered in England on another. There is news of Britain’s huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia but British Leyland, now to be taken over by BAE, is to close two factories, with a loss of up to 5,000 jobs and Kode International has a 40% profits downturn reported. Britain’s airports experience huge delays as they now lack summer holiday capacity with European holidaymakers worst hit but there are also long flight delays for holidaymakers at Manchester and Gatwick before this UK air crisis is averted by offers of using Heathrow for the extra traffic. The rain stops the Test Cricket and Wimbledon tennis after Edberg beat Becker in the man’s singles final and Nigel Mansell managed 2nd place in the rain driving his Williams at the British Grand Prix whilst athletes are supporting stricter drug bans. The riot at Lingholme Prison was due to overcrowding. Glenn Ode Prison in Scotland is an inhumane warzone as the Glenochil Prison dispute is still out of control. The Church of England Synod at the Lambeth conference of the Anglian church agreed to the ordination of women as priests. The IRA reveal that the car bombing deaths of the Hanna family was ‘a mistake’ as Ulster Judge – Justice Higgins – was the real target for the IRA. The aftermath and defence of the SAS ‘execution’ of IRA members in Gibraltar and the Vincennes downing of the civilian airliner rumble on. The US Air Force admits to shooting down an Iranian airliner, with 290 people on board, in a ‘target mistake’ as ships in the Gulf flee after clashes with Iranian gunboats. Thatcher tries to defend the US airliner attack as Ayatollah Khomeini declares an all-out war despite Reagan announcing compensation for Iranian victims of the downed airliner. There was also an attack on a Greek cruise boat on the Aegean Ocean and more Iran/Iraq clashes despite the supposed ceasefire the UN is trying to broker which did seem to be too good to be true! The pendulum swings with Gulf forces starting to withdraw from Iran after taking some 8,000 prisoners as hostages with Iraq is saying it will withdraw from recent territorial gains as soon as negotiations are completed but then more fighting in the Middle East erupts with towns taken by the Iranians. In Africa, a car bomb explodes outside a sports stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, killing two people, and more bomb attacks take place supported by the ANC. Winnie Mandela’s wife’s home is destroyed by an arson attack and the South Africa’s government censors the film, ‘Cry Freedom’ but the 70th birthday of Nelson Mandela was marked by an appeal for Archbishop Tutu for his release from jail, and Neil Kinnock’s party arrived at the wrong airport in Zimbabwe and were intercepted by armed troops before being released! Britain’s are advised by the Foreign Office to follow the example of the Soviet Red Army in leaving Afghanistan, there is more fighting in Angola and, in Asia, 30 die as a jetty collapses in Malaysia where 1,000 people were queuing for a ferry. Better news as the USSR conference agrees plans for reform and great news as Seve Ballesteros won the Open Golf Championship in the ‘best performance of his life’