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Outing to see the Shuttleworth Collection flying display
A lay in and my normal Sunday fried breakfast before reading The Sunday Times from cover to cover. No mention, again, of my interview with Jane Bird and Philip Beresford and I begin to wonder whether it is the dominance of Richard Brookes or an editorial policy against the copy. Washed, dressed, and then Daniel’s friends arrive in force and I watch and surprise them playing Elite. The early cloudy weather was gradually clearing and I made the decision to prepare for a visit to Old Warden. But first our Sunday lunch and only just time for Diana to finish the washing up before we load up the Escort Estate and take off. A short drive down the A1 dual carriageway to Old Warden and we arrive at the parking field of the Shuttleworth Collection as the first air display session is in progress.
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Family trip to Cambridge before I set to polishing my Jaguar for the first time
Up a little early for a Saturday, washed and dressed on a morning again without a Financial Times. A quick breakfast and, Daniel off to school, the rest of us by car to Cambridge where we managed to find a 2 hour parking meter near the town centre. Diana took Daniella for Di’s contact lens appointment and Debbie joined me to look around the book shops and market. We eventually manage to find a good selection of early writing books and add purchases of plums and strawberries for tea. A couple of disasters as first we fail to find each other at Eaden Lilleys (occupying different coffee shops on successive floors) and then I learn that the Optician managed to break Diana’s contact lenses whilst trying to polish them. Home via St Neots where we buy our prawns for tea and also a frozen trout for tomorrow. Our normal Saturday Happy Eater lunch where I change dishes to try the diet burger. The afternoon giving my Jaguar a complete vacuum, wash, wax and shine for the first time in a few weeks.
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Meetings and David Barford’s 10th anniversary lunch after which I resume teaching Debbie to ride a bike as pit managers union NACODS votes by 80% for a strike
An early start to the day and, after breakfast, washing and dressing, I manage to get into the office by 8.30am. a long slog for a couple of hours calculating and keying in fuller details for my Investment and Income summaries; typing also a covering letter for despatching a copy to my accountant, Roger Brittain. Just time to prepare a few papers before Bill Freyenfeld arrived. Bill is a Consultant active in the City as a founder member of the C3 club – assisting relationship between the City and the computer industry. He was visiting today on an assignment for the Computing Services Association to conduct a fact finding mission. They are reviewing what scope there might be for closer cooperation with other trade associations and I gave him chapter and verse about the BMMG. I ended with the theme that we had been disappointed in the past with the CSA’s assertion that the government should best support services at the expense of manufacturing industry due to our ‘inability’ to compete with the US or Japan.
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Newspaper interviews on the Japanese MSX threat and arrangements for more DTI meetings before an evening on the kids’ homework as USSR’s Gromyko denounces the USfor peace posturing
A long lay in on a fine day reading today’s Financial Times and last week’s Economist. Another slimming breakfast of toast and apple juice and then dressed on time to enter the office at 9.15. A message from the locksmith that today’s arrangements were cancelled and the carpenter’s efforts rearranged for tomorrow. A row with Diana over the need to stay in to assist while she was in an agitated state over her first keep fit session today. The morning and afternoon calculating and analysing our investments and income to date, ending with a typed list. Phone calls to the DTI, Head of IT Division’s office, following Brian Willmott’s letter of invitation to a meeting and arrangements made to meet on the 2nd October. Calls also from The Sunday Times, Philip Beresford and Jane Bird, and interviews on the MSX threat and the effect of exchange rate variations on the fortunes of the UK industry.