After starting the gardener on the task of lopping the hawthorne tree that overhangs our swimming pool, I change for my Hinchingbrooke hospital appointment about my shoe insoles and I now need my reading glasses almost all the time for reading small print. I missed Steve Bloom who was not at home in Sawtry.
Chrisula and her three daughters visited and I tried so very hard to receive warmly though I find her such a dim-witted person but was happier relaxing with the girls later.
Business confidence is poor, and the Sterling is at its very lowest parity allowable in the ERM of the EMS as John Major is implored by some Tory politicians to take Britain out of the ERM or devalue. The fighting increases both in Georgia and in Yugoslavia that was and we come to the end of a volatile year.
Had trouble in getting to sleep last night which I put down to not getting enough exercise, my relaxing so much of late. Was therefore sound asleep when Diana woke me after 8.00am and then only just showered when I was called to breakfast in my dressing gown. Dressed first in some old clothes and out to start the gardener on the task of lopping the hawthorne tree that overhangs our swimming pool. then quickly changed and over to Hinchingbrooke to my appointment at 10.45am with the fitting’s technician. I had complained of my new surgical insoles riding up and not doing the job for what they were intended and the technician agreed to take them back and make them stiffer.
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I drove home via Sawtry, hoping to have found Steven Bloom at home and to have made plans for the London Boat Show but he was not there. He is unemployed and spends his time improving his house there as an investment of his labour in it; but I find his efforts overshadowed by a huge new construction that takes place next door. Home to find the house empty and Diana still out shopping and so I get out the vacuum cleaner and clean out the inside of my Range Rover which is the first time I have done it in some months as a task long overdue.
Di returns for lunch and then a visit this afternoon from her Sister-in-Law, Chrisula and three daughters which I try very hard to receive warmly though I find her such a dim-witted person. Tea later and then this evening I watched a TV adventure film with the girls before helping Della to write her first ever entry in her own diary! The news today is of many items of bad economic news; there being above 1000 company failures a month for the first time; Directors being very low on business confidence and the pound Sterling is at its very lowest parity allowable in the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System.
Some Tory politicians are imploring John Major to take Britain out of this mechanism and others to reduce interest rates and devalue the pound against the German Mark. Funny to hear the latter being described as "a realignment of sterling" as they change their tune. The fighting increases both in Georgia and in Yugoslavia that was and we come to the end of a volatile year. I now need my reading glasses almost all the time for reading small print and I think that my eyesight has deteriorated sharply since the summer.