Very congested visit to Cambridge to meet up with Di’s parents at Eaden Lilley and to find Charles in a very depressed anti-Christmas mood. Some shopping and then The Copper Kettle for our first Xmas lunch of the season before home after more visiting chores. Today Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Intermediate Nuclear Weapons Treaty that scraps over 4,000 in stockpiles and in reserve, Dr Bennett who has been a critic of the Archbishop of Canterbury commits suicide and four railwaymen were killed by a passenger train near Leeds
After my very late night, I was slow to wake and even slower to rise. Did so in the end and it was a struggle to get down to breakfast at all, let alone on time. I did so after the others had finished and had the table to myself. We had planned a trip to Cambridge this morning and so I only had a half hour to write up yesterday’s journal before it was time to go. The roads were busy this morning and the town of Cambridge even busier, as everybody rushed to get their presents and requirements for Christmas. We had to queue in the Range Rover for the Lion Yard car park, even if we were early. Walked off to Eaden Lilley for coffee with Di’s parents by prior arrangement. Di’s father is very depressed about Christmas, finds it ‘awful’ and ‘wishes for it to finish so that things can get back to normal’. After, Di and I went around music shops to buy a number of compact discs, whilst Di’s mother looked after Daniella. Most of the discs were for us, but we also got one or two for Daniel as his Christmas present. We also bought Debbie a nice, smart, feminine, but attractive watch to replace her present one, which she finds ‘childish’ and ‘Mickey Mouse’. Then we went to the Copper Kettle for lunch and had our first Xmas lunch of roast turkey there.
Home to have afternoon tea and then I set off at 2.00pm for a few more errands; to Huntingdon for the key to the river meadows; to St Neots for a haircut, and to Buckden to chase up their work on The Lady. I found out this afternoon about a chance to replace my Daimler with a Bentley and get £11K change! I listened to my compact discs this evening and they were terrific. The news today is of the formal signature by Reagan and Gorbachev of the Intermediate Nuclear Weapons Treaty, which eliminated the stockpiles of medium range nuclear missiles. The Treaty not only includes those deployed, but also those kept in reserve. US scraps 922, USSR 3,335. Now the leaders talk on to try to lay the groundwork for forthcoming agreements and only time will tell. The process of dismantling and destroying the INF weapons, after the treaty is ratified by both countries. The problem may be to get a 2/3rds majority of the Senate to approve it. News today that Dr Bennett, the previously anonymous writer of the preface to ‘Crockford’s Clerical Directory (that was highly critical of the Archbishop of Canterbury) committed suicide by poisoning with car exhaust carbon monoxide. Four railwaymen were killed by a passenger train near Leeds in Yorkshire and it appears that there was no ‘look out’, which there should have been.