Buying our first electric blanket from Cambridge today and then browsing the relevant books in the Cambridge University Library concerning Lord Overstone , Lord Wantage and John B. Papworth’s family history and his books on property and garden design before home in time for Di’s social with Mums and kids and then to take down the Christmas decorations. A deepening crisis at Barlinnie with three wardens held hostage as they protest at the brutality of the Scottish prison system, Inspector Douglas Havelock is brought to justice over his shooting of Mrs Cherry Grace, the French unions are protesting at the 3% pay limit and now there is a London Tube strike.
A late bedtime watching a rather macabre Spanish Clint Eastwood film on the TV and so was still groggy when Di woke me with the morning tea. Had to get ready quite quickly today, as Di had planned a trip for us to Cambridge and we had a lot to do. Could leave the ducks and doves to Pete and so only read the paper and mail before getting the car out ready for us to leave. Received some back-numbers of the Family Tree magazine today, which was the only item of interest in a pile of ‘junk-mail’. It seems that everyone is these days on a mailing list and is angry at getting so much rubbish and advertising circulars to plough through. Di drove to Cambridge, whilst I sat in the car and started to read my magazines.
Parked in the Round Church car park and was at the Eden Lilley coffee shop in good time to meet Di’s parents, soon after 10.00am. They had my book on Huntingdon Monuments for me – it cost £20, but I gave them a further £5 for petrol, parking and their trouble. After coffee, Di and I selected an electric blanket from the basement, as some cold weather is expected. We chose one with separate controls for each side of the bed and for use during the night as an ‘overblanket’ at three levels of heat. I left Di to get her thermal underwear and I walked over to the Cambridge University Library to find works on John Buonarotti Papworth and Lord Wantage. So good to have a library that literally has every book on its shelves, but rather a tiresome system of request and search by form filling to get it produced. Read Lady Harriet Wantage’s book on her husband and made myself late for lunch. It seems they, and Lord Overstone before them, had little interest in the Huntingdonshire estates and did not even mention their Lordship of Manors in the text, but only the husbandry of the land closer to their mansion. Was 15 minutes late to the Copper Kettle and by then Di had already bought the meals and consumed most of hers. Quickly ate, left, and returned to the CUL, this time to read J B Papworth biography by his son, which was interesting in explaining his family links with Little Paxton and the Heddings. Also scanned through JBP’s books on Ornamental Garden and Country Property Design and was most interested in his ideas. The catalogue of Wantage’s paintings was very dull, with non-topographical interest in the classic styles the main influence – nothing for the local historian there. Met Diana outside with the car and then a hurried drive home to find Di’s friends all ready for their afternoon social. Children (all girls) everywhere and the ‘Mums’ nattering in the dining room about the colleagues who are not there! I helped with the children for a while, putting a Care Bears video on for the youngsters and supervising the painting and drawing of the older girls and then I fell to my reading and study and the mums had to take over. A quickly arranged cooked tea once they had left and then out to put away and feed the birds. A cold and breezy feel to the day and this seems to have cooled the dove’s ardour for a change. More reading after tea and then it was time to help Di take the decorations off of the Christmas tree and rearrange the lounge. The news today is of the deepening prison crisis at Barlinnie Prison, Glasgow, as three wardens are now held hostage and 34 others had been injured. The officers were subjected to a deluge of roofing tiles and bricks and then, when hoses were played on them, they rushed cells below and took the officers and also a range of riot gear. They say the protest is about brutality in the Scottish penal system. The trial is now taking place of Inspector Douglas Havelock on a charge of maliciously wounding Mrs Grace in the incident that started the London riots. Armed police had used a sledge hammer to break down the door and then point weapons at Mrs Grace whilst looking for her son. The French Unions called a series of 1 day strikes in Paris in protest at a 3% pay limit imposed by Prime Minister, Jaque Chirac’s government. Fewer and more crowded transport systems were the result, but the government is holding out and refusing to do a deal. In London the NUR tube train work force is also calling a 1 day strike for next Wednesday over pay and conditions. A gang of armed raiders snatched nearly £1million from a security van outside a Nottingham bank. The weather men are back peddling over their forecasts of a ‘big freeze up’ and now say that, though colder, the weather will still be seasonally normal.