Considering the aftermath of Derek’s custody following his armed visit to the gypsy camp and then off to Essex to collect the Rolls Royce Corniche and agree future work on it. Back home to two meetings of Little Paxton Parish Council this evening where we considered planning applications and then the future sports provision in the village.
I had a fairly poor night, with the weather continuing warm and close, and then started this morning by telephoning round to agree our position on the conduct of the police. Overnight, my mood had changed from that of being critical of Derek and defensive to that of being rather upset at him having been detained overnight and only conditionally released with the resulting publicity being damaging to his professional and personal standing. The meetings with party colleagues yesterday had been very sympathetic and this morning everybody agreed to support Derek and Sandy if they decided to make a complaint. It was left to Derek to make the final decision.
** "Read More" BELOW for the complete story **
A quick lunch of sandwiches and then off with Diana to Essex to collect my Rolls Royce after a summer of attention at the P & A Wood garage. I was a bit upset on the journey over the combination of Derek's lack of wisdom and the police's lack of trust and was poor company for Diana on the way. I became even more grumpy when she lost the way as our navigator but at least we got there. I had a long chat with Jeff Williams about the outstanding problems with the car for future attention. One of the sills is corroding but it was felt that the best approach next year would be a partial repair for £1000-2000 to last until the other cill was in need of attention so that they could be redone, and the bodywork re-painted together.
As much again needed spending on the front suspension where the rubber-coated pins had perished, leading to joggles whilst going over bumps. They thought that the slight engine noise on starting was a piston knock but, as the Rolls-Royce engine is most robust and the noise goes with warming up; this should be the lowest priority. The car's value at the moment would be a little over £30,000 (excluding the registration) but it would be worth more in better economic circumstances. It drove well enough on the way home and I put the hood down for the last part as it was such a hot and humid day. To two meetings of Little Paxton Parish Council this evening where we considered planning applications and then the future sports provision in the village. Home quite late again and then to relax and retire without tackling my journal backlog.