Hot and sunny day sorting out the Comart mail and the aftermath of the poor Kode contractual negotiations before a nice Family pub lunch and then out on a Wild Duck Hunt with Daniel as the Summit story is one of a ‘Thatcher/Reagan show’ with declarations strong on control of inflation and freedom of international trade.
A lay in reading the papers before a breakfast of cornflakes and top of the milk. Then, with Diana, off to Little End Road to have a drink of coffee and sort the Saturday mail for industry journals to read and the Grove House mail. Then up to Little Paxton to collect my three year planning binder for study and to make phone calls to John Lamb and Derek Weatherby to ask them about last night’s events. They are both disappointed that Kode had made rather a mess of the service agreement drafts and had also spoken of these changes in front of David Fear and Ian Nickson; where John wanted contact to be through him. I reinforce my view that either these contracts are concluded this week to my satisfaction or not at all and we will carry on as before. I will now take a personal interest in the negotiations and control them.
A nice lunch at The Anchor in Tempsford after shopping in St Neots – the open air is far better than the closeness of The Happy Eater in hot weather, for today has been hot and sunny throughout. This afternoon to rest a little inside to cool down and then off with Daniel and through the lock to look for and (eventually) to find our missing 12th and 13th ducks. They had fled to the Paper Mills by the weir and the Samuel Jones watchmen had been feeding them. Unfortunately they had grown so wild in the last few weeks that they would not respond to herding and we must return tomorrow to try again. An evening looking at papers after Peter Smith had phoned and passed on a request for my attendance at a Kode meeting on Monday. News from the Summit is of a Thatcher/Reagan show with declarations strong on control of inflation and freedom of international trade.