Monitoring the stock markets and currency markets but advised to sit tight for now and then off to Cambridge for meals out before and after and to see a pantomime as Pete and Joan work on at The Hayling View. Yuri Romanenko return, with two other cosmonauts after he spends more than a year in space and a gunman in Arkansas kills 16 people
A sound night and steady start to the day. A modest breakfast once more with all my family and then I quickly went to my office and scanned the Prestel SEAQ data for the state of the stock market. The $ had confirmed its seasonal 3c drop against the pound sterling at 184.7 and also the City FT100 had fallen by 70 points to about 1720. I called my broker and chatted, but decided that the values were too high to buy still and too low to sell the few shares I have. Pete and Joan soon arrived and so I went out to explain to him what I wanted doing. He cut out many of the lawn weeds and patches of weed grasses, replacing them with good turf fragments, and then dug out and shaped the ditch on the west side of the lawn. Had time to read the first Financial Times after Christmas and then it was soon time to leave for Cambridge. Today was the day we had booked a box at the Cambridge Arts Theatre to watch the Christmas pantomime ‘Cinderella’, but we stopped off at the Happy Eater en route to have a light lunch first. Then the difficult task of getting into the centre of Cambridge to park.
The car parks were full and lines of cars queuing and all other opportunities to park were either full or restricted by increasingly difficult rules. In the end we parked well out (at Grange Road) and took the long walk in, but still arrived well before the 2.30pm start. We had ‘The Rymans Box’ which was most comfortable for 4/5 people and with an excellent view. During the performance we were well in line to have sweets thrown at us, and a range of funny remarks directed at us by the irreverent and funny actors. The long walk back to our car afterwards and this time it was raining and windy, but we stepped out with the girls, singing nursery songs and carols, being all of us in a good mood. We had, in the meanwhile, also walked over to the Wimpy cafe in Cambridge and had a burger tea. Once home, Daniel watched TV, Debbie did some more of the crossword puzzle book, Diana got Della to bed and I stuck in a couple of weeks press cuttings whilst listening to a radio detective play, which was good company. I telephoned my parents tonight and found all well with them. The news today, apart from the latest City financial news, was of the return from space of the three Russian astronauts, including Romanenko, who was ‘feeling great’ after nearly a year in space – an endurance record. Their 3-man replacement team may be up longer, as the Russians seem to be planning a 3 year mission to Mars next and need experience of long durations in outer space first. Meanwhile, the latest US shuttle flight, planned for next June, has already been put back, after tests revealed that they have still not solved their booster rocket design problems. In that unfortunate country, in Arkansas, the latest nutcase – former US Air Force Sergeant Gene Simmons – has gone on the rampage with a gun, killing 16 people, of which 14 were family members. The world’s oldest living person (on record at the age of 114) Mrs Anna Williams, died in a Swansea old people’s home today. Born on June 2nd 1873!