I aborted my St Ives auction visit after Nigel cancelled and so drove to London for more family history research on John Broad and family in Watford and then home late for tea but still read to Debbie as an Israeli. Syrian jet incident hits the headlines, oil and Sterling fall, Westland will dominate tomorrow at the House and Murdoch and SOGAT 82 are at loggerheads
A poorish night, but finally slept and woke tired to my morning drink. Time to look through the Financial Times to see sterling down yesterday and gilts down in sympathy. Jaguar is climbing, but Kode is staying put at just under a £. Down to breakfast of boiled duck egg with toast and fruit juice and both me and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. Quickly showered and dressed and ready to leave by 8.30am. Not much in the post, but I took a couple of BMMG correspondence items to re-address to Owles Hall.
Off to St Ives for the antique auction. Nigel Smith had called yesterday to say that he could not come, so I was there on my own. I took another look round and then got a tea and mincemeat slice from the café as a break. The more I looked, the less I liked the lots and so took a snap decision to go to London to continue my family history research. I drove to the M11, filling one petrol tank on the way, and then made my way to Wanstead and on by tube (Central Line) to Bank for the short walk to the Guildhall Library. Arrived by 11.45am and spent 3 hours looking through trade directories for London, finding out more about John Broad Jnr, plumber, as well as the date that James Broad left the Red Lion. I am still no nearer to finding where John Broad (Snr) and James went to when they left Watford and all seem missing as of 1841 Census year, but I have a few ideas to follow up. Only managed to get back to Wanstead by 5.00pm and home in Little Paxton by 6.15pm and Diana was very upset with me for being late home to tea. I still managed to retrieve two rather well done trout from the oven and then read a story to Debbie in bed. The swimming pool excavation is now concentrating at the deep end, with a huge pile of earth and mud on our river plot and neighbours complaining about the mess. Time tonight to write up my family history notes and journal and then the TV news. Main story today is of a Syrian private jet being forced down by Israeli fighters as they thought they had captured Palestinian militants in international air space. In the event it was the Syrian deputy leader and colleagues and an international incident ensues. The US are accused of providing the (wrong) intelligence. Petrol prices are down 3 pence a gallon and the pound sterling is also a further cent against the dollar at $1.375. Crude was down to nearly $18 a barrel and a record low. The government policy now seems to be a lower pound to keep interest rates down. The Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, will give evidence before the Defence Select Committee tomorrow. There will be a 3 hour debate in the Commons tomorrow over the British Leyland potential sell-off. Murdoch is going to seek damages against SOGAT 82 in the High Court tomorrow and the print workers themselves are claiming a deceitful plot to rid himself of his 6,000 employees without redundancy payments. Emergency tests were ordered on Boeing 747 jumbo jets for the third time in 6 months for safety reasons. This one is for cracks in the ribs of nose structural members. Speculation mounts about a possible East/West exchange of spies next week and the Russians may release Anatole or Natan Shcharansky at last. England’s test team have suffered a humiliating 7 wicket defeat at the hands of West Indies weakest team, the Windward Islands. Shirley Williams was today selected as the SDP candidate for Cambridge and was jointly chosen by Liberal and SDP members. The weather forecast is for 2/3 degrees of frost tonight and snow will be spreading later, with cold north easterly winds.