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Company Administration and BS5750 quality seminar and then watching England beat Hungary 3-0 as Chancellor Lawson promises to cut expenditure whilst shipbuilding contracts and BT management fail to get hired engineers past picket lines
Early to rise and to the office in good time to continue my work on company administration. This time preparing the last three years Company secretarial work on Comart Computers Ltd. Now I intend to use the company. A letter to the auditors to provide nil accounts and an overall plan of meetings and resolutions to complete the task. The mail and then to Wymondly near Hitchin and the Blakemore Hotel to a CBI conference organised jointly with the D of I and addressed to Chief Executives on the subject of Quality. Grants and consultancy are available to help us identify the work necessary and plot the course for certification to BS 5750, the new national quality standard. A very valuable event where I learnt a great deal.
Back to the office at 5.30 and there to find June has completed my draft document lists and company administration. An evening discussion with Ian Nickson over quality and upset by comments from service personnel out of the proper channel for communications. Then to check work presented and home for the England vs Hungary football international and a 3-0 victory.
The news tonight of the trial of the policeman who shot Waldorf and how he was plainly out of line. The Conservative Conference preoccupied with spending control presented by the hard line in the person of Nigel Lawson, the Chancellor. The voices of the wets were heard, however, in short speeches and fringe meetings. British Shipbuilders are planning more job cuts and contraction as British Telecom management was thwarted by alternative engineers refusing to cross the picket lines set out against privatisation. Thus is the strife of the moment as the economy refused to pick up and little prospect indeed of reductions in the unemployment rate.
Daniel brings home his bus-friend to tea tonight and a fine time they have with the computer games. Diana is impressed with his manners and in such company Daniel is a rough diamond. To bed on time against another busy day tomorrow of action and administration.
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Cold but dry day working on business problems and my new document register as the Tory conference bays for blood in the Law and Order debate
Another cool day but dry and bright this evening with a rising barometer. An uneasy night troubled with business problems and slightly late to work and down to the task of continuing to complete the Register of Documents. The morning mail and then to a Comart Sales Meeting all morning. A good natured affair with impressive marketing plans and sales reports. As the government and OEM business grow (and a record export achievement) but the dealer sales are tailing off as a cause of concern. This afternoon to decide on the job offer for the new Software Development Manager and then staying late to complete the draft document register.
Today the first day of the Tory Party Conference with the customary law and order debate and ritual baying for the blood of serious offenders which Leon Brittan satisfied with longer sentences. The Cecil Parkinson affair rumbled on with the stage-managed support of the platform speakers would have us believe as is well. My sore is healing slowly with Diana taking a close interest in it! – but I have not had any opportunity for it to be of worry unless it is a recurrence of a very old condition.
Early to bed and to catch up some sleep I missed in the last few days.
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Cold day of interviews, management meetings as Peter King sells his house and starts to move down before helping Daniel with his maths homework and Diana to bed with a cold. Great actor, Sir Ralph Richardson dies aged 81
A cold day starting with rain and ending clear and colder. On time to the office and preparations for the interview of the two remaining candidates for Software Development Manager. The day punctuated by these interviews on the one hand and the task of keeping the paperwork cycling on the other. In between times, brief meetings with John Lamb, David Fear, Carlton Lowe and Derek Morgan to touch base on the progress of events. Peter King at Head Office today and news of his successful house sale which has put added impetus into his search for a new home in the area.
An evening attending to the Xitan document register before coming home and helping Daniel with his maths homework. Dinner and the news as Diana takes an early night to bed with a cold. News today of Cecil Parkinson resisting resignation in the Panorama T.V. interview and the Tory Party making their public stance of loyalty.
Sir Ralph Richardson, that great gentlemen of a film actor died today aged 81. The Post Office unions are resisting privatisation and blacking connections to the Mercury Network. The Management are now ending the coverage they have provided for the men and a High Court Injunction is the only thing that could stop them.
Bed tonight in fair time after two late nights with a Bournvita and wish to sleep
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Morning studying the papers as Thatcher comes under pressure as currencies fall and cricket fans mourn the demise of Yorkshire cricketer Geoff Boycott and then work on my application to the Royal College of Arms before Roast Beef and a late return to the office managing administration and reviewing the profit sharing scheme
We lay in even later, recovering from the exertions of last night, and I to catch up on reading the Economist and Sunday Times. Much speculation therein on the future of Cecil Parkinson and I am sure he will have to resign as Industry and Trade Minister. Harsh criticism also of the Conservative Party’s direction under Thatcher. Since the election her policies are becoming increasingly unpopular on cutting Health and Local Authority spending and her own eye operation and the indiscretions of her ‘self-made’ cabinet colleagues have made her government appear ‘accident-prone.’ Standing on the eve of this coming week’s Conservative Party Conference – always a public stage-managed affair but with events off the floor the key- her party members are in a rebellious mood on several counts.
The Business sections are full of the cut and thrust of the market-induced events. Bankruptcies, births and takeover wrangles predominate but some industrial companies are returning to profitability – though on a much poorer scale in the case of UK companies than their US competitors. Exchange rates this week have been very volatile with US and UK rates and interest levels vying for attention as they promise to continue downwards. I hope this is not misplaced optimism on my part but I do so hope that they do start to spiral for the good of the economy.
Cricket circles are preoccupied with the fate of Boycott, and from both sides firmness of view and position but sadness from the public that a means could not be found of managing the club and its people more effectively.
The rain of this morning finished by the time I rise at midday to wash and start my proposal for the College of Arms. Lunch of Roast Beef and Yorkshire pudding done nicely by Diana, after getting some advice from cleaner Joan on how to keep it moist and tasty. Then to complete my proposal as a long and detailed document giving my family and personal history in biographical form and including suggestions for the coat of arms as a description and sketch.
In late afternoon I help Daniel to clean out the ducks who are still only laying two eggs per day with no contributions yet from the youngsters. Then a tea of toasted currant buns, cheese rolls and flapjacks taken early before going to the office to collect Diana’s car and spend the evening on secretarial work. I have set myself the task of creating Document Registers and listing all statutory and contractual documents and their whereabouts. It is also led to a survey of the state of the Profit Sharing Scheme and the steps that had to take place in the next few months.
Home late to find Diana engrossed in yet another televised repeat of “Gone with the Wind” and then to bed late a further time.
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Day reading and preparing tax return information, replacing my lost car key, and then attending the Kimbolton School Association’s Barn Dance with Diana and Marilyn
A cool day with a strong breeze, fading later. An extended lay in bed completing all manner of reading that has been weighing down my briefcase lately. Diana to Huntingdon with my car key serial number and there to get a duplicate key – I had lost my own key yesterday. After lunch I settle to bring my own personal papers up to date and reply to my accountants with information for my 1982/3 Tax Return which they complete on my behalf.
Late in the afternoon I take Diana’s car to the office and try my new key which fits the Rover fine. An opportunity to get rid of my completed reading from my briefcase and photocopy the Income Tax enclosures. This, together with elimination of unnecessary information, allows my expandable briefcase to be closed without expansion for the first time in a few weeks. Also to authorise the entire personal expense claims for the group and complete my own.
Home in time for a wash, shave and change into studied casuals for the School Association’s Barn or Country Dance to the Brixs and Brussels band. I take both Diana and Marilyn who is escorted, to her concern, by the newly divorced employee of husband David’s company Tesco. He has been all too close to Marilyn recently but David does not seem to mind. A very energetic and enjoyable evening’s dancing with line or wave dances, square and circle dances and a merry confusion of steps and partners at times. Though uncommon, these dances have a good effect of making everybody dance and mix as the steps land you with new partners and couples during their progress. The band was implored to play on awhile afterwards as we all recovered from our evening’s exertions. Marilyn is a strange but warm soul, secretly bringing in her home-made wine to save pennies and, both in conversation and action, displaying an exceptional naivety that is both endearing on the one hand but could be rather irritating for a husband trying to avoid embarrassment.
Home to bed after midnight and we retire after drinking lots of liquids and paying off Marilyn’s daughter Caroline who babysat for us.