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The river levels even further up this morning, after I had monitored them until late last night, and my riverside gardens and the Paper Mill road had flooded completely until the levels subsided later. Debbie attended the Evangelical Church with Amy and then we attended the Little Paxton Harvest Festival Church service. I was firm with Daniel, Paul and Mrs Kingham about Paul’s midnight cider punch party not being suitable for Daniel or 15/16-year-olds in general. The Indian peace keeping forces in Sri Lanka claimed to have killed more than 65 Tamil Tiger guerrillas, with a loss of 6 of their own, a tourist plane crashes in Burma, killing 49 and the UK government block extra cash being invested for European Space development
My retirement last night was even later than I thought. I checked the state of the river at 11.00pm and found it high and still rising and so had to switch on the ‘floodlights’ (!) and spend the next two hours piling up and moving the loose wood that could otherwise have got swept away. It was 1.00am before I got to bed and, still being awake and wondering about the river levels at 2.30am, I rolled over and cuddled Diana for a while to relax and tire myself enough to sleep reasonably for the night. This morning, the river was even further up and when I walked up to the lock this morning, I saw that all three sluice gates were wide open and the lock gates were tied back and raised to make a fourth sluice. Even then, the water was flowing across the road at the Paper Mill, to make a ford for the cars.
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Still raining hard after a very wet night with flooding throughout southern England as I stayed in and played with the children until our customary Happy Easter lunch when Daniel could join us after his school morning after which I heard more local history information from ladies that worked at Paxton Park Maternity hospital.. Spotted the river rising alarmingly as we drove back and there then followed some swift action to secure our boats and riverside belongings as the water came over the camp-shedding as all of South East England and East Anglia are on flood alert. The Sri Lanka conflict escalates with eight Indian soldiers killed by Tamils who themselves suffer ten dead, the US ship set to burn toxic waste off of the North Yorkshire coast is scared away to Belgium by a Greenpeace ship, armed police have seized a large haul of arms in Essex
Slept well enough, but was late down to the morning meal. Debbie also had a lay in, but Daniel had already breakfasted and left the table. An appallingly wet night and stories of flooding throughout southern England. It was still raining then and, despite Diana’s offer of a lift to the bus stop, Daniel walked there anyway. Di was upset and drove after him, telling him she ‘would deal with him later’. This morning I read the paper and looked after Daniella in the playroom, which was one of the only warm rooms on a cold and miserable day.
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A frustrating time this morning getting a replacement tape recording machine and then some televised Test Cricket before settling down to check the children’s’ homework but the Longsands girl put off our meeting. The sickeningly arrogant Margaret Thatcher was regaling the Tory Conference and she must certainly fall soon with that attitude, Congress is also unhappy with Reagan over his Gulf conflicts, wanting Congress to debate it, and anger is rising over the blame of the ferry sinking being confined to three crew scapegoats, rather than the company. In a Bristol mortgage fraud, 31 solicitors, valuers and estate agents have been arrested, after a 12 month enquiry.
Went very late to bed last night, after finishing some chores and had asked to be left to lay in a little while this morning. In the event, I was awake in time for breakfast and went downstairs in my pyjamas to eat. The kids were a bit difficult today, with tummy aches from our worms medicine and sniffling cold symptoms making them uncomfortable.
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Daniel’s working morning with me was thwarted first by St Neots retailers not having the supplies that we need and then by the visit of Peter Lewis, our local vicar, who called by to chat and support my efforts at writing Little Paxton history. My news was in St Neots Weekly news again, Daniel still completed his afternoon voluntary work in the Oxfam shop, Debbie was horse-riding again and then looked at my Grant of Arms after her homework was about Kings, Queens and heraldry. A US helicopter gunship sank three Iranian patrol boats after coming under attack, the Zeebrugge inquest returns a verdict of ‘unlawful killing’ over the Herald of Free Enterprise sinking and Sir Jack Lyons of Guinness has been charged with theft and false accounting.
Awake a little tired this morning, but got up, showered and shaved, then put on my dressing gown to go down to breakfast. Recent suspicions were confirmed when finding the family at the table and eating at 7.35 (5 minutes early). No wonder I have been having trouble joining them in time! Daniel was home from school today (a KSSC/CCF Field Day) and so I planned an energetic morning’s work for him, helping me. I took him off to St Neots first, to buy a few things that we would need, but we were confounded by the shops not having them available, viz a 4 ½” circular cutter, 2” wastepipe, ‘U’ bolts of correct dimension. In the end we came home for a coffee and were surprisingly joined by our local Vicar, the Reverend Peter Lewis of St James’s Church.