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An early car crisis as the Daimler had a flat battery for Di’s visit to Cambridge which we jump started with the Range Rover and then I stayed at home continuing my history archiving and monitoring the stock exchange and, venturing to believe that the bottom had reached and a recovery underway, I started buying equities. Later, to collect Debbie from school after her recorder lesson and to review Daniel’s school work, where his English is the remaining subject to improve. More rain and gale force winds are forecast to continue a thoroughly miserable autumn.
A better night’s sleep, but still tired this morning as I struggled to wake up. Showered, shaved and dressed in time to arrive half way through breakfast, which is an improvement. A dull meal of cereal and fruit juice again. Problems this morning. Di was trying to get out early with the Daimler to take it to Cambridge for the day. Marshalls were due to do some factory recall modifications on the anti-lock braking system. Unfortunately, it was many weeks since we had used it and the battery had run flat. All hands to the pumps as we eventually used the Range Rover’s battery and jump leads to start it, but not before I was oily and tired and Diana was an hour late! This very day I was due to have my second consumer satisfaction telephone interview from Jaguar and didn’t half give them some stick! This morning I scanned the paper and then watched closely the stock exchange movements on TV teletext. Spoke twice to my stockbrokers, and used my Prestel phone set to scan data on several companies of interest. The market fell sharply on opening and had then started climbing back and so I made the decision that it was at, or near, the bottom and time to buy some shares again. Telephoned orders through for £1,000 (each for the children’s trusts) in both Argyle Group and Courtaulds and then £40,000 in each of three shares for me (Plessey, Bank of Scotland and Courtaulds).
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Myself and my family recovering from our holiday trip, with a portfolio of transactions actioned today and a large job started with my history archiving, and the nation recovering from the shock and mourning the outcome of the so called ‘Poppy Day’ Remembrance Sunday massacre at Enniskillen yesterday. Stories were emerging of police intimidation of the Irishmen wrongly convicted of the last Birmingham Pub bombing. I keep a close watch on the stock exchanges, which are falling again and Di and I supervised Daniel’s prep and Debbie’s flower arranging for Brownies this evening. UK Industry Minister, Kenneth Clarke, got a pounding from fellow European Space Ministers today, as Britain stuck to the policy of resisting any increase in space exploration research funding. Up to 70 people have perished in a bus bomb attack in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Another night of gradual acclimatisation. Not tired at first and then difficulty in waking up this morning. My normal routine, but it was all too slow and I ended up missing the family at breakfast. Read the financial paper after the meal and had deduced from my entire weekend reading that the markets were going to fall again and fall they did. I worked with one eye on the TV teletext this morning and the other on my accounts and deskwork. The Index opened up another 30 pts down and finished 50 off. Wall Street followed suit later. This morning’s work was to sort out the mess on my desk, update financial accounts and make a number of calls to arrange things. This took all morning and most of this afternoon and I sent Diana off to St Neots with a virtual portfolio of financial transactions to do for me. Collin Howard brought round the photograph copies and this evening I started the long process of sorting, referencing and sticking them into my photo portfolio.
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Remembrance Sunday – A poignant day during which I watch the Cenotaph service in the morning and attend the St James Church memorial service and the only shame was the England cricket team playing out the final overs of their match with Australia in India at the time the two-minute silence should have been held and the appalling atrocity at the Enniskillen memorial where an IRA bomb killed 11 people commemorating the war deaths
Slept well enough after a restless start and then lay in until 9.30am and got a mild headache as a result. Made myself a morning tea and sat in the lounge watching exciting coverage of the England v Australia final of the world one-day test championships. This cricket match was very exciting and, with Australia winning the toss and batting first, England got within 7 runs of their score before running out of time in this 50 overs match. It was about 11.00am by this time and, after having a bowl of cereal, I got washed and dressed so as to get out to feed the ducks before lunch. Diana was very late up this morning and struggled to get Debbie up and out to church. Then lunch was very late, allowing me time to read most of today’s paper. Daniel’s friends, Gary and Steve, were here for lunch and we only just managed to spread our meal of roast chicken for enough. Finished off the Sunday paper this afternoon and then, an early tea, as we were due to take Debbie to St James Church for the memorial service, which was very good.
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Catching up on financial research and reading on a chilly and foggy day before a trip to St Neots for some shopping and chores. The family news from Mum and Dad and Freda is better but both Di and I are five pounds overweight after all that un-healthy American food. John O’Grady’s kidnappers appear amidst heavy security precautions in Dublin’s central criminal court and released ANC leader, Mr Mbeki, held his first press conference with restrained police action
Another night’s sleep that seemed to me to be sound, but Diana accused me of thrashing around in the night, such that she had to take refuge in the spare bedroom! In any event, I was woken by her alarm and got up in time to shower, shave and dress for breakfast. Not so the girls, who both slept in until midday, which is only 4.00am Californian time. When I weighed myself this morning, I was up to 13 stone 10lbs, an increase of a few pounds due to our holiday excesses. Di was up to 10 stone 4lbs and is thus also 5lbs overweight. With their large portion sizes of totally unhealthy food types, it is no wonder that the US population is grossly overweight.