The morning in the garden with Daniella and then with Daniel and Debbie to Cambridge via The Little Chef for a family lunch and there to see Hi-Fi and computer shops and to visit the reference library for garden design and have a chance meeting with former TI colleague Robin Woods as second and third earthquakes hit Mexico City with 10,000 plus dead
We slept well and then awoke to morning tea. Breakfast of toast and fruit juice and then to embark upon a mammoth reading session, coping with the last few days cascade of computer journals and plenty more national reading besides. By 8.30am I had enough and so got washed, shaved and dressed and went out to feed the doves. I took Daniella, who padded round with me and then joined me in a bit of gardening. As I finished planting the last three clematis plants and the pink potentilla out front, she played with my tools, walked round and sometimes sat at my feet, until I was finished. Eventually Diana came to find her and put her to bed and then we had some morning coffee. A very breezy day that started cool, but ended quite cloudy and mild.
After coffee, I went out to fit the new garden tap that is threaded to take our common hose fittings. As I completed it, a neighbour called to discuss his pile of excess earth and we agreed that he could dump it on our new riverside plot, which is yet to be levelled and landscaped. A little more work after, but it was tiring after yesterday’s exertions and slowed to a standstill by the time we were due to collect Daniel from St Neots. A rush therefore to get out and to St Neots, but we made it on time, posting Diana’s parcel and buying the seafood en route. Off then towards Cambridge and we stopped on the way to have lunch at the Little Chef. The children behaved well and we all enjoyed our meal, particularly after missing out last week. We arrive in Cambridge and park after a little difficulty and I take Daniel to look around the hi-fi and computer shops. He takes some time and I rest my legs eventually by going to the reference library and browsing through two books on garden design. Back to the car and on the way Daniel and I meet Robin Woods, an old acquaintance, who has taken the last two years getting a MSc in microelectronics, but is presently in Cambridge for a Queens College reunion dinner. The girls are back at the car waiting for us and Debbie has found a Horse Chestnut tree and we spend a while getting conkers. Home and there to have a tea of prawns before watering my new shrubs and feeding and putting away the ducks. Then a quiet evening’s reading whilst planning the construction details of my new pond. News and now a second and a third earthquake have hit Mexico City and the death toll is estimated at as much as 10,000 people. Bodies are being brought out almost non-stop, but occasionally there is a rescued person injured, but still alive. Five areas have been scheduled for nuclear waste in Britain according to the environmental group, Friends of the Earth, but official sources do not want to comment.