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After getting the gardener to plant my new conifers, and receiving more plants from Percy and Nigel, I drove to Cambridge to collect my Apple scanner and used it this evening for scanning documents and pictures. Together with Daniel, I rearrange the furniture to make the conservatory suitable for dining before he helped me commission the Apple scanner. The flight recorder boxes on the Pan Am Lockerbie crash showed nothing abnormal but Transport Secretary, Paul Channon, has met criticism for choosing to go on holiday at this time
I slept well and then rose to shower, shave and have a modest cereal breakfast. I caught the gardener and asked him to plant the two large conifers from the tubs and this took him most of the morning as the ground was full of bricks and rubble! I then settled down to some financial paperwork but was soon interrupted by Percy Meyer who called with a couple of plants for my conservatory – a Black Hamburg grape vine and an umbrella plant. We sat and had our coffee whilst feeding the fish which was nice, then back to work. I first planned and then calculated my tax payments on behalf of the children’s trust, then worked on my other payments, bank account and credit card statements which took me all morning and some of the afternoon. I then set off by car to do a number of delivery and collection errands. To Cambridge, where I collected the Apple scanner; then to Nigel Smith’s to deliver Christmas presents for my godchildren and to collect two more plants for my conservatory – a pineapple amongst them.
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After a slow start on a mild day, and to breakfast in my pyjamas, I struggled with the Christmas preparations and routine. I worked in the conservatory installing the electrics and then installed spotlights outside before buying two large Leylandii shrubs to screen the new conservatory from the front gate. I went with Di and Della to watch Debbie’s Christmas horse-riding party and then came home to further decorate the Christmas tree. My dad had his minor ear operation today and my Apple scanner now awaits me in Cambridge. The Lockerbie Pan Am plane crash kills all its passengers and many more on the ground, for which claims of responsibility have been heard. The UK. falls foul of the European Court of human rights over detention without trial
I slept in a while and had to eat breakfast in my pyjamas again. This was more the pity, as Daniel’s friend, Gary, was staying the night and he seemed a bit startled. Christmas is a big problem. Everybody rushing around to finish off their work, tasks and commitments. Then there are all the Christmas customs and every year the list of cards and required presents gets longer. So many hopes are built up, expectations heightened and then dashed in the dull disappointment that follows. Then, in a flash, it is all over again and it seems like an anti-climax – but still we go through the routine. This morning I avoided all this and worked in the conservatory. I installed the electrics; enabling lights to be switched from within the lounge and the contact breaker distribution panels as well. It all went together with ease and was a good job well done. I also carried on after lunch to rig up the outside spotlights which I directed onto the Leylandii hedge.
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The shortest day - After a slow start, I was taken by an Ekins land agent to look at an investment opportunity in Little Paxton, after which I had morning coffee with Diana and the girls in town and then purchased more electrical components for my conservatory wiring. Then a visit to Avenue Fisheries this afternoon to buy another Koi, a fishy character which soon settled into the pond and calmed the others down too. Then some time wiring the conservatory and finally appalled by the tragic news of hundreds dying in a plane crash in Scotland with a fireball engulfing the area of Lockerbie.
I slept soundly last night, and Diana had to wake me up twice as I dozed off back to sleep this morning. I just got dressed, had breakfast and fed the Koi before the land agent from Ekins arrived and collected me for a visit to see some local land which was for sale. We went to the other side of the A1 in Little Paxton and looked at the 11 acres owned by the ‘Hippy Commune’ who lived in moored boats on the River Kym and got power from a windmill etc. We met the group leader (who was personally ‘dead against’ selling but had been instructed to ask our price by the others who were getting fed up with the venture). The land agent estimated about £20,000 and will formally confirm a fair offer price to me after doing more research.
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As the painter completed his work in the conservatory, I sat in the lounge nearby with the children extracting newspaper cuttings and playing with them before Della and her friend Holly helped me clear up the conservatory, where the fish and heating controls were a fascination for us all. Though settling some accounts, I could not get deep into my paper work either then or later this evening. So-called ‘animal rights extremists’ firebombed stores in London and Cardiff today, the Law Lords ruled that the ‘Shoot-to-Kill’ inquest was unlawful, and Vickers won the UK Challenger tank project despite a pro-American lobby
I slept very soundly last night and awoke with my headache completely gone and I was feeling most rested. Soon the painter came and spent his last day here applying the second coat of microporous varnish to the conservatory rafters. I spent this morning sitting in the lounge with the children, reading a three-week backlog of local newspapers and extracting the Little Paxton cuttings. As I did this, I also supervised them and played some games as well and it is getting their Christmas. We had lunch and then I spent the afternoon clearing out the conservatory now that the painter had vacated it. I set everything out again and fed the fish. Della and her friend Holly loved to help me do this but had to keep warning them not to fall in the Koi carp pond!
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