A mountain of paperwork to do after an early start and then a trip into St Neots to complete the chores and book our Disneyland holiday and then failed to find the scaffold fittings I needed for the moorings before we all enjoyed the Kimbolton Statute Fair with Debbie winning the prizes and endurance tests! Thatcher suffers barracking in the North East over industrial dereliction with 19% unemployment on Teeside and, as SDP leader Robert MacLennan addresses the Liberal Conference the local SDP/Liberal Alliance representatives ask me to accept the candidacy for the Little Paxton Councillor seat in the District Council
A little trouble sleeping again, but was dead to the world when Di brought me morning tea. It seemed to be earlier than usual and perhaps Di was trying to ensure everyone was ready for breakfast. Plenty of time to get showered, shaved and dressed for breakfast and this morning we had a boiled egg each. Di managed to cook it perfectly for a change. We needed to go into St Neots later, but first we did a few chores. I had a mountain of post to sift through – mostly dividend warrants and Trust documents – and I ascertained which cheques needed to be paid in etc before we went. Also phoned to try and contact Colin Howard about getting some more photographs done and to check on my rotavator repair, which was not yet ready. Into town in the Range Rover and first coffee in the Rendezvous Cafe, whilst I made out a host of forms for in-payments and taxing the car. Then we went to St Neots Travel Agency and ordered our Disneyland holiday for the children’s half term week – it was over £2000 and I had to fight to get them to agree to let us go without insurance.
We were ‘attended to’ by Debbie – a pert blonde, covered in gold bracelets, necklaces and rings, who would make anybody an ideal companion for the trip. Di then went off to Liptons, whilst I went over to Roger Brittain to get some cheques endorsed. He told me that the last remaining query concerning my tax rebate had been solved – the inspector could not understand why Barclays had paid us £18,000, rather than the declared £12,000 deposit interest in the first year. The answer is the money invested on behalf of the children of course. Tried Tibbets for my scaffold fittings, needed for the boat moorings, but they referred me to B&A of Sandy again. Home to a salad lunch, then this afternoon I started undercoating the balcony rails white again. It had rained this morning, but stayed fine enough for me to get 40% of this task done before it started spitting again. Once the children were home from school, I got them to change and then Debs to do her diary and Daniel his English, for tonight was the Kimbolton Statute Fair and I had agreed to take them. We drove over in the Range Rover, collecting Daniel’s friend Paul on the way, and arrived at 7.00pm. I bribed the boys to go on a couple of the scary rides with Debbie and she out-rode them, until they were dizzy and chickened out, and she screamed for more! A few more rides and games with Debbie (winning a couple of cuddlies and a ‘punchball’ balloon) then I brought her home – returning for Daniel later. The news tonight is full of pictures – first of Thatcher in North East England, battling with local opinion over the industrial dereliction there and agreeing to differ with her barrackers and dissenters. Industrial production has risen slowly to reach the levels when Mrs Thatcher took office, but Teesside unemployment is 19% vs 2% 20 years ago. The arms talks seem to be making progress. SDP leader Robert Maclennan addressed the Liberal Conference and I received a letter from local SDP/Liberal Alliance representatives asking me to accept the candidacy for the Little Paxton Councillor seat in the District Council and I will have to consider it seriously.