Della coming in this morning to kiss and cuddle me as her ‘bestest daddy’
Della coming in this morning to kiss and cuddle me as her ‘bestest daddy’

Achy this morning after recent exertions but blessed to have Della coming in to kiss and cuddle e as her ‘bestest daddy’ as the start of a more restful day watching TV and reading the Sunday papers. The government try suggesting private healthcare as the answer to NHS funding shortfalls as they are so much opposed to more public funding and now 15 people have now been killed in the last 12 days during Palestinian protests on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Had some trouble getting off to sleep, the new sheets seem coarse to the touch and my exertions of recent times have left me stiff and achy. Eventually to sleep and next awake when Diana was off to get the morning drinks. Still stiff as I washed, showered and shaved and just got down to the table in time for a nice fried breakfast. Daniella had come in with Di to give me my morning drink in bed and was so sweet, kissing and cuddling me and saying how much she loved her ‘bestest daddy’. A nice breakfast before settling down in my office easy chair to read today’s papers, until coffee at 11.00am. It was a mild and dry day today and so, after going out to feed the doves, I stayed there and went over the games lawn, treading carefully on the prouder areas, and picking up the odd pieces of mud and earth left from the hurry of the turf laying. Then, I had just time to go all over the lawn with the wide and light roller – first along its length and then across it. A little late for our Sunday lunch, but Diana was determined not to call me and just put the meal on the table and waited for me to arrive.

I thought for some time after lunch, deciding what to do about further work on the lawn. I decided to spread a treatment of ‘Autumn Top Lawn’, which includes phosphate off-season fertilizer and worm killer Carbaryl, and then went out to complete the job in anticipation of rain or showers over the next day or two. I shall ask Pete to start on the lawn edging tomorrow and stay off the surface for a while until it settles. Later this afternoon, I watched a TV football match, where Spurs came dramatically from behind to win a match 2-1 against Derby County. Tea in the lounge, watching an hour’s excerpts from the ‘Antiques Roadshow’. Finished off today by going through this last week’s local papers for press cuttings of Little Paxton and finding plenty. The news today is of the government making a response to all of the recent Health Service criticism, with a review planned for the new year, but they will only respond by putting up the options of more private health insurance and funding on a paying basis, as they are dogmatically opposed to support by radically increased government spending, preferring tax cuts instead. Robert Maxwell has pulled out of his proposed takeover of Watford Football Club, following League opposition of any person holding situations of influence in more than two clubs. The Liberal Council are criticising David Steel, their leader, over the terms of his agreed merger terms with the SDP, but he is determined to see the merger through. The Palestinian protests on the West Bank and Gaza Strip go on and 15 people have now been killed in the last 12 days. Civil disobedience and business strikes are also methods used in the protests. There is to be an internal BBC enquiry, after advance reporting has taken place in the press of the content of the Queen’s Christmas Speech.