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Another very busy day with the builders making good progress and Diana and I making equally good arrangements for the remaining curtains and carpets before a pub lunch at The Cross Keys and the sobering telephone messages wanting me to lead a seminar and open a factory! The Geneva Arms conference has the US faltering over its demands for USSR human rights as the Russians steal the publicity show and a new security gate goes up at Molesworth and children are pulled out of the mud 3-4 days after the Colombian disaster
With Diana for this first time last night as we managed to put the mess out of our minds after two weeks of chaos. Down to breakfast and time to read the FT before rushing to wash my hair and shave. Time also to take some video shots of the kitchen prior to the fitting of the units and also on the progress of the rest of the works. By now there was a steady stream of contacts. The builders first and a chance to resolve the outstanding problems with Mr Cheeseborough; the curtain fitter from Brittains, Cyril, next to fit our last lounge curtain pole and measure all of these new curtain rails I have fitted. Then Smallbone at about 9.45am to get started and the plumber soon after to move the inlet valve and do a few other jobs. After settling all of these workmen down, I went out to feed and water the ducks and doves. The new birds look very bedraggled and messy, with the double hazard of the netting and mess on the narrow walkways causing it. If I was to get pre-warning of a settled and dry spell, I would let them out sooner, rather than later. Off with Diana then for a busy morning in St Neots. To Brittains, where we order all of our curtains, selecting the materials and styles/colour for each room. Then, whilst Di chose carpets at the St Neots Carpet Company, I picked up my new outside lighting sets from the electrical shop, and then doubled back to the carpet shop to arrange a Wednesday meeting at Willow Close.
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A better day with the children’s health and more progress putting up curtain rails before a Little Chef lunch and a run-in with a houseboat crew over a log trailer blocking our drive and then news of another tragic motorway crash with 53 injured and Terry Waite trying hard to free the Lebanon hostages
A better night without any further tribulations with the girls. Awake to morning tea and then the, by now, customary routine of breakfast in the lounge with the family. Then a long rest in my swivel chair reading last week’s local papers and the Sunday Times, from cover to cover, on this one day that we can take our time to get ready. Then a bath and, after shaving and dressing, out to feed the ducks by the river, as I did not bother to get them in last night. Then the doves and the established flock ate on the bird table right next to the newcomers today. It will not be long before I let them out. Back inside to continue the task of putting up more curtain rails and, by working the rest of the morning, I just managed to complete the kitchen windows, three in all. Then, Daniel having gone to Gary’s house to play computers and have lunch, the rest of us went to the local Little Chef for lunch and the girls ate reasonably well. They seem to have recovered from their incapacity.
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Day mostly at home with the children suffering sickness but we got out for a Happy Eater lunch as a change from a diet of bread rolls and I put up lots of curtain rails and we made some more curtain and carpet decisions as the builders felted and battened the link building and I mounted the ladder to paint the weather vane pole. This as there is mounting horror in the aftermath of the volcano eruption, Reagan posturing for his “peace mission” as he leaves for Geneva, and Unionists up in arms over the Anglo Irish pact terms
A poor start to the night as the girls continued to be sick and cry in turns until the early hours, but then slept soundly. Awake to my morning tea and drank it by my bed. I still avoid sitting in bed for the trouble it caused me when my back was bad, as it is not good for it. Down to breakfast as usual in the lounge and then I sat, read the paper, and then read the post that followed it. A few forestry details, but not much to get excited about. Daniel off on time to school and, the girls still being queasy, we decided not to go out this morning, but do some chores inside instead. I continued putting up curtain rails in the dining room and then measured up and worked out all of the needs for curtain rails for the complete property. We decided to chance it for lunch and so set off to pick up Daniel from his school bus in St Neots and then took off for the Happy Eater for our Saturday lunch. The girls were ok, if Debbie a bit queasy, and Di and I really enjoyed the meal after our recent diet of bread rolls. Home via St Neots to drop in on Brittains and ask that they measure more rooms on Monday for curtains when they come. I bought my curtain rails (I am now standardising on Swish Deluxe) we were alarmed to hear that they are not taking any more carpet orders for fitment before Christmas and, after the two for the dining room and Daniel’s bedroom, we will have to try to get some others from St Neots Carpet Company.
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A better day of progress on the building work as we feel that a corner has been turned and another busy day supervising Daniel’s school work but both daughters go to bed sick tonight as the death toll rises in the Columbian earthquake with rivers of mud and debris obliterating a town
Awake to my morning tea on a much milder morning. No frost today and it had been raining for a good deal of the night, and again as I draw the curtains. My exercises before breakfast and I am getting quite proficient at them now, after a diffident beginning. Down to the lounge where I start to take Daniel through his prep for checking. It takes a long time and much longer still because of Daniel’s incessant arguing and so, in the end, I have to shout at him, which upsets the whole family as a start to the day. Well after 8.00am by this time and I quickly shower, wash my hair, shave and dress in a vain attempt to be ready to see the head builder. In the meantime Diana raises with him the question of the door from the kitchen to the hall being an outside door rather than the inside door that we had imagined. At last ready and so to start work in Debbie’s new bedroom, drilling the wall to take curtain rails. We decide against going to Bedford so that we can get on and so I spend a little more time feeding the doves and ducks and reviewing the builder’s work. Today they start felting and battening the roof and the glazier calls to glaze the kitchen door and Daniel’s balcony door. This makes us much more weather proof and the enlarged house starts to take shape. The decorator also spends the day here painting ceilings whilst he can and the electrician places all the utility room socket channels against the wall.