A month of generally fine weather to end the summer, with cooler nights and a few wet days amongst some dry ones for the end of our boating holiday and the start of our outside ‘catching-up’ jobs. My direct family are fine, children back at school but Daniel still struggling a bit with his chemistry. The main concern now is the health of my poor Dad. Antibiotics of growing strength did not stop the swelling and pain, and the growth in his ear spread via his lymph glands to his neck and brain so quickly that his life was threatened. The only hope is of very major surgery such that a forthcoming brain scan and consultation between plastic and neurology consultants will decide his fate. Unfortunately, the pain and anguish of my parents had an unfortunate outcome as they fell out and I had a distressing letter from my Mum, who wanted to leave my Dad!
We enjoyed our boating holiday on The Lady, cruising up the Cam to Cambridge, back along the Old West River, stopping at St Ives before cruising home to Paxton. Once back, there was work to be done to repair our Rolls Royce and Range Rover cars. We bought folding bikes and used them for city shopping trips and I improved my pool sand filter connections to aid ease of care. We struggled to get the children back to school and to get Debbie back to her horse-riding, but we enjoyed the Kimbolton statute fair. I dealt with a couple of repairs for The Lady and we attended the Southampton Boat Show, looking at various models and homing in on the Broom 37 as our next choice of craft if we decided not to renovate The Lady. At home, Pete and Daniel were both recruited to help with painting my steel quay-heading with pink primer and then Tractol. My purchase of Heronshaw in Horning is proceeding but that of Cow Lane Meadows in Godmanchester is falling by the wayside over problems with the fishing and mineral rights. I witnessed a scary Reliant Robin accident on the way and supervised the rescue of a heavily pregnant lady.
Cambridgeshire Deputy Chief Constable, John Stevens, is to lead the investigation into the leaks which have thrown the Anglo-Irish agreement into stress. The Northern Ireland ‘troubles’ lead to the IRA attacking two British soldiers off duty in Germany and of two Ulster Volunteer Force men are charged with complicity in a scheme for revenge killings against Republicans; but the worst news was of an IRA bomb strike killing 10 Royal Marines bandsman and injuring others. The government is under attack for its social and economic policies and now trailing in the opinion polls with a 40% drop on the Stock Exchange, a £2b trade deficit and sky-high interest rates due to continue as Sterling falls despite Bank of England support. Ambulance officers have joined their men in implementing an overtime ban.
It has been 50 years since the war broke out between England and Germany and when my parents were married and now in their former home of Tottenham, 400 police have raided Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, looking for drugs in what was virtually a paramilitary operation. A collision between two oil tankers off Humberside left a 140 mi² oil slick which is luckily drifting offshore. England draw with Sweden to qualify for the World Cup Finals with 100 fans arrested after the reports of ‘rioting and looting’ by English soccer fans on the North Sea ferry, the Tor Britannia, after being denies tickets. Now the Football Association have cancelled the friendly match against Holland in response.
23 people killed and 100 injured at election demonstrations as the blacks are excluded in their unjust South African ‘All-White’ elections. President Bush is calling for a mutual 80% chemical weapons reduction for the US and Russia. There is an exodus of East Germans through Hungary and Austria to West Germany as its German reunification and Europe restructuring begins and the European commission adopts a workers charter despite Thatcher’s opposition. A month of plane and road accidents. Hurricane Hugo leaves 25 dead and 100,000 homeless in Puerto Rico and is now turning along the US coastline and half a million people have fled Georgia alone.
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The end of September arrived and, with it, the end of this summer which has given us so much pleasure. After fine days, we often had cooler nights and a chilly start to the following day. It was then a bit warmer but with the odd rain shower as it became windier and cloudier, but it still stayed mainly dry. We had overnight rain but dry daytimes, very typical of flat Norfolk and then some cooler and drizzlier days before the return to surprisingly finer warm and humid days to end the month. Elsewhere a 145mph hurricane is caused death and destruction as the Caribbean hurricane season began.
My direct family are fine, with the children back at school, although Daniel was still struggling a bit with his chemistry. My main worry was the health of my poor Dad, as his new antibiotics do not help his swelling and pain but gave him bad dreams. He was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where he was prescribed stronger antibiotics but was not kept in at first. Then his ear growth spread via his lymph glands to his neck and brain so quickly that his life was threatened. At first, we had the upsetting news of my Dad’s surgeon giving up on his ear cancer as he tells us that this cancer is spreading, operating is not practicable, and they are considering radiotherapy as the only other option but then even that was ruled out. We could only keep him comfortable as he would soon be discharged and found a hospice. There was then some hope for him as another surgeon, Mr Lambertini (in Mr Campbell’s absence on holiday) was apparently willing to consider an operation and planned a brain scan the following Monday, which gave us the only hope; but this would be of very major surgery such that a forthcoming brain scan and consultation between plastic and neurology consultants would decide his fate. If they do feel able to operate, he will have a major part of his neck and side of his head removed but a skin graft will allow radiotherapy thereafter even if the growth is not finished. If they do not operate, that he will slowly die in pain with no time limit known. I discussed this development in long calls with Freda and Mum.
Unfortunately, the pain and anguish of my parents had an unfortunate outcome as I found out when I drove to Stanton to find them rather depressed after a matrimonial row with mum’s arthritis back in the spine and Dad tired and groggy with his facial swelling and septic discharge. I calmed them as much as I could, packed away a swing chair and mowed the lawn and then took their car for a short drive to make sure the battery was charged before leaving after three hours understandably depressed. I then received a distressing letter from my Mum, who wanted to leave my Dad, and so I spent time composing a reply to my her letter and then drove over to Addenbrooke’s Hospital and visited my Dad, who looked a poor figure with sagging facial muscles and a crooked smile. The next day, I drove over there with Di and the girls to find Dad looking even more tired than the day before but pleased to have Della on his lap looking at photographs and to receive his slippers and some grapes. I took back his laundry and lent him a large book on Koi carp. He seems a little worse every day and now his neck is swelling, and Diana asked me the question ‘Why?’ and I tried to answer in many ways.
We enjoyed our boating holiday on The Lady, cruising to Ely as the month opened and stopping there at Ely marina for suppliers and mooring at the quay opposite. Daniel and I looked around the Chandlers and the girls around the town. After meeting back at the boat, we cruised up to Cambridge on the river Cam that was very quiet but clogged with weed cuttings. Daniel met up with his friend Gary Skinner there and went to the cinema, Di visited the launderette and I had a walk around as the girls played on the nearby equipment. Later we all took a walk to Cambridge town centre to Eaden Lily’s coffee shop after which the others went shopping and I went to the ‘Cambridge Collection’ part of the library and researched information on the history of Banham’s and our Discovery craft, ‘The Lady’ which was built in 1968, then named ‘Merdeke’. After our stay, we cruised back down the Cam and along the Old West River to the Twenty Pence Inn with our sliding cockpit forward and the chilly weather kept out. The hot air heating soon warmed The Lady and the kettle was boiled for hot drinks, after which I took Daniel for a walk around the marina to see the wreckage of an old lifeboat, surviving the attention of the noisy geese. Then a slow and steady cruise along the rest of the Old West River; through Hermitage Lock and on to stop briefly at Westview Marina, Erith, for water and other supplies. On to Brownhill Staunch, through St Ives Lock before mooring at Waits Quay where we had a ball game before spending a quiet evening there. There followed an unsettled night aboard The Lady when I awoke to find the heating not working and this accelerated our return home, as we just did some shopping and ate lunch in St Ives, before hastening back, arriving at teatime to unload the boat and settle back in at home.
After our time cruising on Lady Martina, it took time to adjust to being back home, which started with a poor night in an unfamiliar and warm bed, as I try to acclimatise. There were plenty of chores to catch up with; purchasing all manner of necessary materials for our property and collecting our painting from Horseheath. There were errands to Cambridge, and purchases of tools in St Neots and a trial drive in the Rolls-Royce which had not been used for a while. There was a slight air leak from one wheel and so I had to renovate the Rolls-Royce spare wheel to allow it to be taken off and fixed. We also dropped off the Range Rover to Sawtry to get it repaired and re-sprayed after which it was then looking as good as new. We bought two new Bickerton folding bicycles, carried them in the Range Rover, assembled them and cycled into Cambridge City as went to the record office to research the manorial records of Linton, whilst Di went to the supermarket. We also had another trip to Huntingdon in the Range Rover having packed the two folding bikes in the back. Parking in Godmanchester, we then cycled into the town.
I took Di to St Ives and St Neots for shopping trips, morning coffee and to the Little Chef for lunch when I could and combined this with getting swimming pool accessories in Melrose, some toner cartridges re-charged in Cambridge and tools with which to improve my pool sand filter connections. There was not much time for television, but I enjoyed the last night of the BBC Promenade Concerts and watched Ryder Cup golf. There was the dentist in St Neots, the struggle to get the children back to school and Debbie to resume her horse-riding, which she had missed, and we purchased all manner of necessary materials for her pony and paid her riding bills. There was the constant job of taking her to Offord and picking her up and I took a trial drive in the Rolls-Royce to collect her from Kimbolton for horse riding (which caused quite a stir!). Back to earth for a very early start as Di had to take Debbie to join two other riders for a four-hour hack and I made a visit to the riding school one morning to help owner Fiona move some jumps from the back field. Debbie was also taught how to exercise Sundance on a lunging rein.
The girls were still swimming and so I kept the pool heated a little longer. I took Diana and the family to the Kimbolton statute fair, where we won a goldfish. Home to tackle some electrical problems on The Lady and then dropping off our boat heater offer service in St Ives. We set off in the Range Rover in the rain for the preview day at the Southampton Boat Show, stopping at a transformed Borehamwood service complex before completing the journey on featureless and characterless motorways. A comprehensive look at the aft cockpit cruisers, a chance to gather chandlery catalogues and to buy some boat maintenance books. We did enjoy a night at the splendid and historical Dolphin Hotel, with its Royal associations and ate a nice meal of smoked salmon and lobster in the fine dining room before a romantic and passionate bedtime. This made for a good start to the following day at the show, reading guides and enjoying a good breakfast before checking out of our hotel and visiting the used boat show displays as the weather improved. We identified the Broom 37 as our favourite choice before undertaking the long tiresome journey home. Between times, I watched the last day of the Ryder Cup golf. A thrilling 14-14 tie, which left the trophy with Europe.
I was always catching up with my work after getting ever busier with my community efforts. In the absence of the Village Hall Chairman I chaired their committee one night. I tackled many constituency problems, receiving calls and visits from residents who had heard I was back home. It was a good meeting chairing the Village Hall Management Committee and I was soon preparing to chair the St Neots Museum meeting the following week and then joining the Little Paxton Village Hall storeroom rubbish-clearing endeavour. An evening meeting of Huntingdonshire District Council Planning Committee proposing my motion against the new housing development between St Neots and Cambridge before attending the neighbouring St Neots Town Council meeting on the same subject. They had contracted a local planning consultancy for £10,000 to advise them on developing a plan for St Neots and the company, ‘A Campbell’, had proposed a lot of undesirable sites for housing development on land owned by its clients, a case of Town Council supreme naïveté or corruption which we are now determined to expose. During the day, I returned phone calls and had conversations with two journalists, and others, and a visit from the local Cubs organiser to plan and agree the timing and content of my Little Paxton history talk. One evening, I hosted and chaired a St Neots Museum fundraising committee in my office before catching up on my journal. Some progress with the HDC Environmental Services Committee as the agenda had lots of plans and proposals following my recent criticism and threats of an external management audit. A St Neots Museum Trust meeting the following evening. more work on Council matters, and to deliver press releases on re-cycling.
I hosted Sally and Brian Guinee one afternoon working on Focus stories and then, after a quick shave, change I was off to that HDC Environmental Services Committee meeting, where I had two items of my own on the agenda which meant getting very late home to bed. I found time to settle down at my computer to edit Focus copy, and was joined by Sally Percy and Michael to finalise it, after which I had to draft my initial reactions to the Huntingdonshire Draft Local Plan to brief Michael before his Town Council meeting that evening. I attended it with the Little Paxton Parish Chairman, but neither of us were allowed to speak. A better experience one evening at the Southoe Parish meeting which was a nice friendly affair contrasting with that of St Neots Town Council. I completed the layout for our Priory Ward Focus newsletter whilst continuing work on my artwork, continuing until it was time to take Di to the ‘Bavarian Disco’ in aid of the Village Hall funds A visit to Cambridge followed where we dropped off the next Focus edition for printing, before we drove home in time for me to go to a Priory Doom meeting that evening. after dealing with all matter of things from outstanding phone calls. I spent one with a colleague adopting a logo for the St Neots Museum committee A meeting of the Southern Area Committee of the District Council where The Local Plan was in pride of place on the agenda. Home soon after 9pm and the next hour returning phone calls and trying to get the St Neots Museum Committee organised for following week’s meeting. and I printed off some recycling posters for distribution afterwards before another late night.as I drove around visiting all my deliverers with the new Focus newsletters.
I still have to plan The Lady’s renovation and to decide on its future and about whether to replace her with a new boat. Pete and Daniel are both recruited to help me with painting my steel quay-heading; first applying pink primer and then a coat of Tractol. Heronshaw, my boat house in Horning (Norfolk), is being bought; contracts are exchanged with completion due next month, but it looks like the purchase of Cow Lane Meadows in Godmanchester is falling by the wayside over problems with the fishing and mineral rights. I had to find time to spend with my accountant Roger Brittain to complete my personal and Trust tax returns. On my way to Sandy, I witnessed a scary Reliant Robin accident and supervised the rescue of a heavily pregnant lady.
Cambridgeshire Deputy Chief Constable, John Stevens, is to lead the investigation into the leaks which have thrown the Anglo-Irish agreement into stress. The IRA attack two British soldiers off duty and a soldier’s wife is murdered in Germany, two Ulster Volunteer Force men are charged with complicity in a scheme for revenge killings against Republicans and there are accusations in Ulster Unionists colluding with the security forces to target Catholics for execution. Even more appalling news is of an IRA bomb strike killing 10 Royal Marines bandsman and injures many others seriously. The Duke of Edinburgh, Captain-General of the marines, visited the injured soldiers in hospital, as security forces want to interview three Irishmen who stayed at a flat overlooking the site the week before.
The public perception of the government is characterised by it being attacked at the TUC conference as the amazing story emerges of the irate housing benefit claimant protesting at delays by razing the benefit office and jumping to his death from a six-storey building. A £2 billion trade deficit threatens the continuation of high interest rates for the foreseeable future. The pound sterling is under pressure despite Bank of England support, as there was a near 40% drop on the stock exchange triggered by this news. The stock market is eventually stabilising after heavy intervention on the foreign exchanges, but the electricity privatisation is postponed for up to 6 months. The Labour Party has warned that they would freeze dividends on water shares after privatisation and rigorously regulate all the nationalised utilities and this is a real threat as they are ahead in three opinion polls undertaken in the 50 Conservative marginal seats. Ferranti are struggling after an unwise US takeover and now Ford also interested in a 15 % share in the UK luxury carmaker Jaguar. A third of the ambulance crews are now off on strike as the ambulance officers have joined their men in implementing an overtime ban and calling for binding arbitration. This has now led the service being seriously overstretched. The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for people to recognise the Pope ‘as the universal church leader’ in the interests of church unity.
It has been 50 years since the war broke out between England and Germany and when my parents were married and now in their former home of Tottenham, 400 police have raided Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, looking for drugs in what was virtually a paramilitary operation. A collision between two oil tankers off Humberside left a 140 mi² oil slick which is luckily drifting offshore as the UK is already in trouble with the EU over water quality. An eight-year-old girl dies in Bletchley as a pile of wood falls on her from a trolley at a DIY store and a madman threatened to spread rabies by inoculating and releasing animals if a ransom is not paid. England draw with Sweden to qualify for the World Cup Finals with 100 fans arrested for rioting after being denies tickets and rowdy England football supporters fight aboard the ferry with one of them lost overboard. and the Football Association have cancelled the friendly match against Holland in response to calls from the government.
In South Africa, following another attack by the security forces on Cape Town demonstrators, 23 people killed and 100 injured at election demonstrations as the blacks are excluded in their unjust ‘All-White’ elections. The youngest victim of the election day shootings (13-year-old Patrick Muller) was buried and, for once, the public ceremony and demonstration when uninterrupted by police. Thatcher will visit Gorbachev in Moscow and Foreign Ministers have set up a summit meeting for Gorbachev to visit Bush in 1990 as President Bush is calling for a mutual 80% chemical weapons reduction for the US and Russia. There is an exodus of East Germans through Hungary and Austria to West Germany as its German reunification and Europe restructuring begins and the European commission adopts a workers charter despite Thatcher’s opposition. A month of plane and road accidents blights the US. A plane crash off the Danish coast with all 55 people on board feared dead, twelve holidaymakers die in a Cuban aircraft crash and, with echoes of the Marchioness disaster, 179 people die on board as a ship sinks after a collision on the Danube. Hurricane Hugo leaves 25 dead and 100,000 homeless in Puerto Rico and is now turning along the US coastline and half a million people have fled Georgia alone. Royal Navy is sending logistical support to help fight Colombian drug barons