A day starting with domestic friction and ending with domestic calm as we drive to Biggleswade for grain and on to Cambridge for herrings to eat and prints to admire before gathering up my ducks and watching TV with Diana as the troops seal off the capital in Zimbabwe and Virgin Video publishes the banned TV programme about MI5 spying on the CND and NUM
A fair lay in after another unsettled night and eventually woken by a fair old row. Daniel and Deborah were together in Daniel’s room waiting for Popeye to come on the television. Rumbustious as usual, Diana thought the noise they were making had woken the baby! Daniel brings up some weak and milky tea as his punishment and I set to reading the paper. Up for a toast breakfast and washed and dressed by 9am. Out to the birds and to feed the doves, before collecting 6 eggs from an even more mucky duck house. Across to the office to collect the post and a host of computer journals to read; once I had just got up to date! A small mention in Computer Weekly of my criticism of the governments Inward Investment sponsorship again. By coincidence, a letter today from Foster of IBM asking for a meeting on the same subject and a tricky decision on how to respond. I scan the journals and by 11.00am we are all ready to leave. First to St Neots to collect my latest bank statement and then down to Biggleswade to purchase layers pellets and mixed corn grain from Holme Mills. Lunch at The Happy Eater and we are pleased to note how well Daniella is improving. Then to the Sandy Lodge of the RSPB and we buy a whole host of goodies and enjoy the stay. On to Cambridge and two hours shopping in the town centre. I collected my 1662 print of Huntingdonshire, double glazed and framed for protection and admiration of both sides. A fine pair of herrings also from Cambridge market and the rest of time looking at bookshops and computer shops with Daniel.
A dry but cool day in Cambridge, but I note from the weather station that it was warmer than yesterday. All to rendezvous back at the car and the journey home. Strange to see how I notice the trees these days and I am quite excited to see large oaks at Sandy and Cambridge. Home before five and I am helped to unload a full car by Daniel. I get the ducks in, but only after three of Marilyn’s Aylesbury ducks finish mating with my thirteenth Khaki Campbell. In to a tea of my herrings, which were really very large and tasty. I hang up my map over the fireplace and transfer the heron water colour to the hall. I finish reading my journals and update the press cuttings book, before an evening’s television with Diana after the baby settles uneasily and slowly to sleep. News today of the first funerals after the Northern Ireland mortar attack. Most NUM areas have been voting on a return to work today and the delegate conference is due for tomorrow. In Zimbabwe, government troops seal off the city of Bulawayo, the home base of Joshua Nkomo. The banned Channel 4 TV programme on the MI5 surveillance of CND and NUM is to be sold on video by Virgin Video, who are also meeting the legal costs incurred in the fight to lift the television ban. Cold, rainy and foggy weather forecast for tonight and heavier and windy rain for tomorrow. Not an appealing prospect.