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A slow recovery this morning after tending the ducks and doves with Debbie and Della and then some elevated house painting with a necessary recovery by way of a swimming pool dip before an evening relaxing and watching a film until it had to be ‘terminated’ as terrifying us! Another atrocity, this time in Turkey, where terrorists killed 21 in a synagogue, more tension in South Africa as The Archbishop of Canterbury enthrones Desmond Tutu as the new Archbishop of Cape Town and here, in Horning, the otter hunt passed by along The Hayling Way
A lay in after the alcohol and late night, but at least I remembered to drink a pint of water last night to ward off dehydration. Some time to persuade Di to get up and make the drinks, but she did eventually. Wrote up yesterday’s journal before breakfast and then, as it was still not ready, I took the opportunity to shave and then go for a refreshing swim in the pool, before getting showered and dressed. Another slice of toast and marmalade for breakfast, then settled down to read the Financial Times. Out to the doves, who are now acclimatised to the new feeding tray and I took Debbie and Della out with me to see the birds.
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A normal day getting the children to school with me attending to maintenance jobs and Diana getting her hair done in Cambridge before the evening excitement of dressing formally and arousing neighbourhood interest before collecting Nigel and Lynne Smith from Hail Weston for the Kimbolton Ball at The Castle where me met Roger Britain and others as the Jazz band played. News filtering through of the Karachi PANAM hijack ending in tragedy as the four Arab terrorists killed 16 passengers and shot 120 others with machine guns as Palestinian security forces prepared to storm it.
The day starts with the school routine, but I manage to get down to breakfast a quarter of an hour later than the rest of the family. Then I got the children to attend to their rooms that they had left in a mess and ate my own toast and marmalade. Read the paper, as usual, after, but opened up the house first to please the others, then went out to the doves, who ate slowly at first. It seems that their seed intake is closely linked to the weather, with less food being needed when the temperatures are warm. Took my papers to the office and worked out, by revaluing my investment portfolio, that we had increased our money some 18% these last two years, despite our use of it. Assuming that the original £2.5M was always going to be liable to capital gains tax from its beginnings at 30%, the resultant £1.75M (net of tax) is now over £2M.
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A chilly start to the day with steam rising from our swimming pool elevated to 83degC and then a productive morning working on family investments and financial summaries before writing covering letters to my financial advisors to seek their advice. Steve came over to join Daniel and cleaned the pool and then swam later before visiting Claire ‘to listen to records and watch TV’ as I removed guttering from the outer garage and applied the first coast of Sadolin Extra to the boards. Serious unrest in South Africa today as Police tried to ban a funeral for 21 blacks and they fought over the bodies, which was obscene; the TUC votes against any more nuclear power stations, Olivia Channon dies of a drug and drink overdose and it claimed that a third of students have tried heroine or similar and Vauxhall cut 1,000 jobs in Luton and intend to reduce total manning by a third
Was awake with Diana and spent my time looking at yesterday’s local papers, whilst Diana got the drinks. Woke up still suffering from a recurrence of a backache, which has troubled me since the fun the other day wrestling with the children in the pool. Got up, shaved and showered, ready for breakfast and then sat afterwards reading today’s FT. Di was quite upset at having to put the alarms off and unlock the house to take the girls to school. Then the task of feeding the doves, on a fine sunny and calm morning. Still, it was cold overnight and such steam was rising from our swimming pool, heated to 83degF, that it looked like a Turkish bath! I will only continue to heat it until the children are all back at school.
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Arrival of a very Noble Rocking Horse on a very wet day after shopping in St Neots and paying for £45K of savings certificates by cheque before the girls came back to enjoy their new arrival. The loveable TV and farming personality Ted Moult shot himself today, after a poor harvest, the TUC calls for a statutory minimum wage, Britoil axes 750 more staff and my private placement EHP shares acquired for £18,750 are now worth £60,000
By now getting into our normal school term routine – up to breakfast by 7.30am and then Di taking Debbie to school. Unfortunately, it poured with rain as they were walking there and Di got quite wet on the round trip. In the meantime, I was getting right ready, because we both had some chores to do in St Neots. Just time to feed the doves, before we bundled into Diana’s Escort Estate and drove off to park in the Priory car park. Morning coffee at Tooks and, after the girls had left, I settled down for a while to complete the National Savings application forms, with their agonising detail. To the post office, where I presented them with a cheque for £45K, which somewhat took the counter staff by surprise, as they had never taken a cheque of that size before.