Debbie’s First Day at Kimbolton – Debbie took this monumental day in her stride without worries which was not true for Diana who was very nervous for her. With a dozen other pupils for our village, she caught what is now a dedicated Little Paxton bus was put in Stafford House (red) and into Mrs Lee’s class and was mostly logging time-tables into their ‘homework book’ . We collected her from the village upon her return whilst Daniel was trying to contact his girlfriend Louise via Paul. Another motorway pile-up kills four more people on the M4, the BT AGM over-ran with countless shareholders complaining and Sir George Jefferson resigns. England’s first international football match after Heysel takes place against Germany and Iraq resume attacks on tankers in The Gulf
The whole family slept all right and there were no worries about the start of school tomorrow. Awake early to morning tea and then we were all on schedule to breakfast. Some last minute flapping about, but both Daniel & Debbie were all prepared for Kimbolton and so everything was OK. Di took them to the bus stop and then left them to catch the school bus and drove ahead to the school to await their arrival. It seems that the larger number of Little Paxton children (some 12 or more) now means that they run a dedicated bus, rather than make it a stop on the way to Alconbury.
Today, this bus was late and poor Di waited and waited for it at the school, whilst all of the other new children went in with their mothers. By the time Debs arrived, they had closed the front door and had to go in the back way with the others, as part of the normal rugby scrum. Di was already nervous and this made things worse, but Debbie was quite happy and took it all in her stride. She had hymns first thing, was put into Lower L (Mrs Lee’s class) and into Stafford House (which is red). They did a hangman word game, a ‘Dead or Alive’ questionnaire about themselves and then, this afternoon, they copied out their timetables into a ‘Homework Book’. No trouble in catching the bus home and I drove down to the Jubilee tree area to pick them up. All home for a family swim, but Della was a bit whiny and demanding, as she was no longer the centre of attention. Tea of hamburgers and then Debbie re-wrote her timetable, corrected for capital letters, and did some book covering. Daniel did a couple more pages and graphs for his Geography project and also went out this evening to see Paul and try to arrange another date with Louise again. This day, I cleared away the last of the work from my desk, and dealt with the last of the photographs to archive. I also received two street maps of the Southworks/Bermondsey Parishes for the mid 1700s, which will eventually aid my family history research. At last, I also wrote to St Neots Family History Society confirming my speaking engagement for the 3rd October 1987 and drove off to post this and other mail on my way to the school bus stop. I made our afternoon drinks and put out the steamer chairs on the front lawn, so that Di, me and Della could get some fresh air. Last night was cool and this morning too, but it had warmed up by this afternoon and was warmer out than inside the house. News today is of another motorway disaster, where four people are killed on the M4. The first British Telecom AGM today, which was extended to 4 hours by complaints about the telephone service. Sir George Jefferson has announced his resignation from the company after steering it to privatisation. The British fans are transported to Belgium for the Heysel Football Stadium riot trials. This evening, the first international football match involving England takes place, as they meet West Germany in Dusseldorf. At the TUC Conference, unions condemn government industrial relations and privatisation policies. The Dewsbury protest parents took their complaints to the Huddersfield Council offices and interrupted a pensioners tea party when trying to see the Mayor. Iraq has attacked more tankers to end the uneasy lull that preceded the UN leaders mediation trip.