Some time with Diana in bed this morning after she had an unsettled night with Debbie’s sickness and then Daniel and I to recover The Little Lady via St Neots slipway and store it on the trailer in our driveway. Some time reading Spycatcher today and news of a violent between Tamils and Sri Lankan police whilst French police detain the alleged leader of the Basque Separatists, Inaki Pujana
I had a good night’s sleep – but Diana was up for hours, as Debbie had found all the excess food and sweets too much and was sick all over the hall carpet! Found Di sleeping in and, as always, used the opportunity to our mutual advantage, as she is normally well gone when I wake up. Little Della came in to join us near the end, which was a little embarrassing! Breakfast was a bit slow in coming and so I had plenty of time to get washed and dressed. Just wheat flakes for breakfast, then I read the Observer newspaper, whilst Daniel watched the rest of his film. At 10.00am Daniel and I went off to get Daniel’s boat out of the river and into our back drive.
First I drove off to check that the lock and slipway were open and then Dan and I got the trailer out of the outer garage and unfolded and assembled it. Then Daniel cruised off in the Little Lady, but I rejoined him at the lock and helped him through. I then arrived at the public slipway, beside St Neots Rowing Club and next to St Neots Priory Centre, and reversed into the river and then cleared all of the main rubbish away from the slipway with a boathook. Soon Daniel arrived and, at the second or third attempt, lined up with the trailer so that I could winch the boat on. A simple matter to get the trailer back home and the task complete. Daniel then cleaned the boat off as best as he could, removing most of the mud and weed, and we both rested in the lounge until lunchtime. Di had prepared a nice meal of roast beef and we all ate some of it – including the children. This afternoon, I started reading the rest of ‘Spycatcher’, whilst Daniel did some school work revision and Diana tackled a mountain of washing and ironing. My reading took until late this evening, but I was determined to finish the book and did. Di turned in for an early night after the recent lack of sleep and excess of household chores, but I can conclude that we were well satisfied with Christmas and visits to and from close relatives. Still yet to get back into my book. The weather continued mild today, but it got quite windy as the day wore on. The news today is of a gun battle between Tamil guerrillas and an ambushed police contingent in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. The Indian government claims that Sri Lankan police, angered by the death of one of their officers, then killed 12 civilians and set shops on fire. Then Tamils launched an attack on the main police station. The French police have arrested a man, Inaki Pujana, and claim he is the military head of the Spanish Basque Separatist group, ETC. He is alleged to have ordered the car bomb attack in Zaragoza earlier this month, when 11 people died.