Ben Johnson banned for taking steriods
Ben Johnson banned for taking steriods

The builders arrived today to start the foundations for the new conservatory and we spent much of the time directing the disposal of the spoil to suitable places within the property. This evening, I was attending a Huntingdon District Council Economic Development Committee meeting, where my proposal for The District Council to take over the Little Paxton Riverside Science Park did not find favour. A difficult visit for Diana from Chrisula as she had to turn down a silly babysitting request. Olympic sprint champion Ben Johnson is disqualified for taking steroids and the SLD conference agrees a controversial party name change to the Democrats

A better night for me after which I quickly got ready for breakfast. I read the morning mail and newspaper and was then ready to see the builders when they arrived to start on the excavations for our new conservatory. The builders were there at 8:30am with a mini mechanical excavator of the sort that I used for my games lawn drainage. They had some trouble this morning getting the digger in line next to the hedge and then getting down low enough to expose the house foundations. In the meanwhile, I had briefed Pete to receive the spoil in two halves – one for the topsoil which is spread over the new verges next to the games lawn, and another for subsoil for building up the foundations for an enlarged summerhouse. In fact, this subsoil was almost pure ballast – gravel and sand – as we are situated on the gravel beds in Paxton. I eventually left this distraction to continue preparing for my meeting cycles this week. One of the meetings was this evening – Economic Development – where I hammered away trying to get support for a proposal for the council to take over the Little Paxton Riverside Science Park site where the developers are now trying to get permission for housing instead.

A nice day today for the building work with sun and fair weather, but it gave way to rain this evening which could be more difficult for tomorrow. This afternoon, Diana had her sister-in-law, Chrisula Jackson, as a visitor and was upset to have to refuse a request to look after her young children for an entire weekend. It was a pity that she was asked, as the children never sleep through the night and are too young to be left. Chrisula is a silly woman! The news tonight is of the amazing disqualification of the Olympic sprint champion, Ben Johnson, for taking steroids; but many members of the athletics community are not surprised as such cheating is widespread. At the SLD conference today, after an emotional debate, the party agreed to the shortened title of the Democrats when the full name is not used. This disappointed the old Liberal diehards and was more than they could take. At least the wrangling is over, and the die is now cast. A soldier charged with the manslaughter of a civilian in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, has now been freed in recognition that the incident was an accident, but people are not happy south of the border as the man was previously the subject of army harassment. The first Bush/Dukakis TV head-to-head debate has ended up with Mike Dukakis having the edge and the ‘race’ there is even closer as a result.