A cold and icy day of catching up with DIY and hobby chores with the family whilst considering the PITCOM opportunity with Diana going shopping and dad visiting Papworth and returning with news of Mum’s heart operation plans for tomorrow as I note falling investment values and the Welsh miners continue their demonstrations and unemployment keeps rising with 679,000 youngsters now on special schemes
Another sound sleep until 8.00am and confirmation of yesterday’s news in The Financial Times. The effect on my investments is a sharply reduced value, but the amount and spread of my portfolio is sound. Down to a breakfast of boiled egg and we each, Daniel, Debbie and I, had one to ourselves this time. I hope the ducks keep laying. Call for nominations for PITCOM Council received today and I have to decide my response soon. My father returns home to Stanton for a visit today to collect more clothes and items. A fine sunny start to the day, which changes to snow showers in mid-morning, but reverts to a dry, dull and cold day overall. Up and a quick wash before out to the doves, who were hungrier today, and to the ducks, who had laid three eggs today and broken one.
I managed to bring in all of the excess logs to the garage as we have consumed a lot and also replaced a fuse in the old house to commission the lights to the side extension. A coffee and then to mend the Willow Close toilet overflow by bending the ballcock arm. To the office and messages from the utilities over the end of the Comart tenancy and also from Jane Bird. I returned Jane’s call and advised her of relevant issues before her interview this afternoon with Geoffrey Pattie. She also thanked me for my pointer in her pre-Christmas Sunday Times coverage of the CCTA portable micros. Di arrives late back from her shopping and therefore takes us out to a Little Chef lunch, which we enjoy, although the children are a bit restless. To the office after and I tidy my papers and the models, cleaning up the room significantly. Off then to Papworth and I visit Mum for a short while. I don’t get much of a chance to talk as she is with the physiotherapist at first, is then taken to see the surgical recovery patients and is lastly taken over by a nurse for a 10 minute shave of any body hair! I retreat and drive home via Buckden to make sure that The Lady is still under cover in this damp, freezing weather. I put the ducks away after a tussle and then to a tea of ham rolls and mince pie to follow. To the office after tea and Daniel and I re-commission his old radio controlled jeep on the ACOMS RC set. This cleans up the pieces and gives us much needed confidence. It goes well after we change the cogs from a high to medium gear and we manoeuvre it around the house until Dad arrives back from Stanton and the hospital. Home together to the news and then to talk about Mum until quite late. She is to be first for an operation at 8.00am in the morning. They will cut her sternum (breast plate) in two with a fine, circular, surgical saw and then separate her rib cage under traction to allow the heart operation. Arteries will be taken from her non-thrombosis leg and grafted on to bypass the almost blocked coronary arteries. Then the mitral valve will be either repaired or replaced, depending on her condition. Her rib cage will be literally glued back together and wired and then her chest and limbs will be stitched up. She will come round with tubes in her nose, arms and legs and will recover in intensive care. All these details she has been told to avoid chances of post-operative shock. A major operation, but one I think she will survive and benefit from. At least she is in the best physical and mental state for the operation, with an excellent surgical and after care team, led by Mr Terrance English, one of the world’s top heart surgeons. To bed late and a tumble with Di to warm us up on a cold night and help forget the worries. News today of Neil Kinnock’s first appearance on a miners picket line in S. Wales as Scargill seeks more support and further miners return to work. But the pit deputies, loathing and mistrusting McGregor’s plans, are calling a meeting to vote on a 5% pay rise and there could be another mandate for industrial action. The Spanish border will be open to Gibraltar on February 5th to coincide with UK/Spanish ministerial talks in Switzerland. Unemployment increases again, more slowly than of late, but January’s rise is predicted higher and a further 13,000 adults are unemployed. There are now 679,000 youngsters on special training schemes and the Employment Department is to start to charge for such statistics.