A cold and frosty day for Debbie to go back to school whilst I was looking after Della and then a visit to Les Forscutt of St Neots, a former Little Paxton resident, whose thatched cottage was burnt down in the war before home to host a visit from Nigel who had sorted out Elm Leisure and is soon off skiing after a bust Christmas of hospitality. This before enjoying a log fire on a cold and frosty evening and then retiring after hearing of troubles on the currency exchanges with France wanting a re-alignment of the Franc against the dollar and 100 cars were involved in a M6/M1 junction motorway collision in the fog
Another comfortable night with our electric blanket, although the temperature outside dropped well below zero and the pool pump was running by means of its automatic frost protection. Up, showered, shaved and dressed for breakfast and was allowed one croissant and a little wheat flakes. Daniella has been a bit strange these last few days. She is sleeping in in the morning, waking up and roaming the house in the evening and, with the independence of a two year old, insisting on doing everything herself. Di is now waking her up in the morning so that she is tired enough to go to bed on time and we are all suffering the consequences of her tetchiness. All except Daniel, who is still on his school boating holiday and is yet to send a card. The first day back to school for Debbie today and Di is struggling to get her ready on time; us all being used to a lay in during the Christmas and New Year holiday. In the end Di goes off and leaves Della with me and I keep her happy by reading to her until she returns. The frost persists all day today, out of the sunshine, but at least the daylight hours are getting longer.
Di takes a compact-disc back to the St Neots library for me and I then settle down to read the day’s mail, which is full of Computer Magazines. John Lamb phones, the first time I have heard from him in a long while, and arranges to come and see me on Thursday week, after a friendly chat I start typing in more of the section on Norman Times into my history text – the most difficult section yet – until it is soon time to go across to visit Mr Les Forscutt of St Neots, who I had arrange to interview about Little Paxton history. A nice old chap and former leading light of St Neots Local History Society, he had several old papers on Little Paxton – a long newspaper account of the fire, which destroyed his Little Paxton cottage and others in 1945, a handbill for the disposal of parts of St James Church with its restoration in 1849 and another about Coronation festivities in 1939. Then a number of sketches from the hand of Joseph Rix of c1874, similar to those in the Victoria County History, with one more of a cottage on the edge of the green, with what appears to be the Elm in its earlier life, before becoming the May Pole stump. I used my tape recorder to record details of the cottage neighbours and family connections, but Mr Forscutt had only taken over his maternal grandmother’s cottage for a short while before the war and returned to live in St Neots after the fire. He gave me the names of the former secretary of the St Neots Local History Society and the former Matron of Paxton Park wartime maternity hospital and I shall contact them both, as they were interested in Little Paxton. He was very good on the late Harold Boardman, who was a friend and neighbour of his and he provided me with a lovely cameo of words to describe him. Home just in time for lunch and then, after a salad and ice cream to follow, I was wondering what to do this afternoon, when Nigel Smith phoned and wanted to come over for a chat. I lit the fire in my office and it was well alight by the time he arrived and we had a coffee and chatted about all and sundry. Evidently he had emailed Salvador a little over the Christmas period, and the attitude of Elm Leisure was certainly very different in a more conciliatory letter I received from them today. He had made them realise that I was by far the wrong kind of person to be in a legal dispute with and that they had some responsibilities to fulfil. He will soon be off skiing and had a busy house at Christmas, with 11 people sitting down to Christmas dinner. Once he had left, I went out to feed the ducks and doves and noticed that the weather vane was askew and half out of its socket, and so it was out with the ladder and up to the chimney to investigate and then I reached it with a fishing gaffe (hook on a handle) and pulled it so that it fell back in place. It must of been some gust of wind that would remove that very heavy structure. The rest of the day, before and after tea, typing in my Norman history, breaking off only for a Country Companion story for Debbie on ‘The Fallen Tree’. The log fire was a comfort and inspiration for me on a frosty night. The warm electric blanket to help Di and I to warm up in bed. Today the stock market rose strongly, but fell back a little from its peak, but the main City news was a currency crisis within the EMS, speculations sending the deutschmark higher and pressurising the franc, lira, punt and krone. The French government had precipitated the crisis by asking the Germans for a realignment and the rest followed. The Japanese are also trying to stop the yen from rising too far. The Aids disease is hitting the headlines, with forecasts by Fowler, the Health Secretary, of 4,000 possible deaths by 1990. The USSR reforms go on, as a KGB head is sacked in the Ukraine for falsely arresting an official investigating corruption. One warder is freed at Barlinnie in exchange for food, but the other two hostages remain with the prisoner rebels. 100 cars were involved in a M6/M1 junction motorway collision in the fog, but, although 19 people were hurt, nobody was killed. The 75th anniversary of the ANC in South Africa was marked with newspaper advertisements in support of the organisation, but rushed new legislation on censorship soon closed this loophole in censorship by a government getting even more oppressive.