Reformed Debbie is serving an early breakfast and getting good school reports from Little Paxton school whilst the doves thrive as courts restore NUM funds and unemployment remains above 3.2m and Tory backbenchers plan to rebel against student grant cuts
Debbie awakes early bringing Diana’s night’s sleep to a premature end. She comes in to see me with my morning tea and I let her draw on my notebook pages. After last evening’s trauma at the dinner table, I am anxious to settle her down again. Then Debbie laid the breakfast table, preparing the toast as well and called us all down to breakfast, far too early! Back afterwards to complete my paper and then to have a shower and shave before turning out at 9.30am for my dove and duck session. The large Blue is causing problems again and, hungry this morning, he starts walking over the roof with his Qualmond hen before I intervene with fresh seed and my 14ft fishing rod and they settle on the dovecote again. To the office and a large post of letters and journals. The morning reading the computer journals, which is quite an exercise. Lunch of soup, rolls and ham salad before Diana’s parents arrive to babysit for the afternoon. Me back to the office and two hours writing letters, settling bills and clearing my desk until just time to give the doves their afternoon seed before Diana arrives back and hurries me to Little Paxton School. We have a meeting with Debbie’s teacher to review her work and progress.
Mrs Lines reported that Debbie was well behaved, a keen and fast pupil, but seems not to hear properly sometimes. Home to allow Di’s parents to get away (they prefer to drive by day light) and, after getting the ducks away, I watched the TV snooker and read the local paper. The four year old girl injured in the accident Daniel and I saw in Eaton Ford on Sunday has sadly died. After tea I sit down with Daniel and review his day’s schoolwork and supervise his prep. Then up to Debbie to read to her and let her read to me a little, then down again to check over Daniel’s results and let him watch the TV. Diana and I then out again to Lt Paxton School for a parents film on a new technique called Pictograms. Each alphabet letter is given a picture character to familiarise their shapes and usage to help young children to spell and read/write more easily. Home to an evening’s television and to write my journal; all birds safely roosting. News tonight of a Luxembourg Court Order giving back the miners unions money (£4 million) which had been previously seized. Only £250K was frozen to meet the UK contempt payments. In the coalfields only 175 ‘new faces’ returned compared with over 800 last Thursday. Both sides are holding their ground and negotiations seem far away. Unemployment is down 3000 at 3,222,500 but still at 13% of the working population. In the Commons, over 100 Conservative MP’s will be opposing the governments planned cuts in student grants and the Whips will be twisting arms over the next few days to no avail. In America, talk of massive cutbacks on certain spending programmes in a so-called “tax-neutral” budget, now that the Presidential election is over. The weather today was fairly mild for the season with morning sun, but a fair breeze.