Having reassured Diana that our slightly delayed and curtailed boating holiday would still be enjoyable for the two weeks, I spent this morning on constituency matters about the Redlands gravel extraction meeting, Rampl(e)y Lane and then, having prepared my speech, drove to Southoe where I opened the village fete, judged the contests and drew the raffle. Later on, we loaded up The Lady and set off upstream through the Paper Mill lock and then moored at Coneygeare for the night
Was very late to bed last night, attending to more of my paperwork and so I slept soundly until 7.00am, when the girls came in and Diana brought me my morning tea. Diana was a bit tense and het up this morning, upset, first, that we had not opted to go to Norfolk in the boat, and then that our holiday had contracted to two weeks. I calmed her down and reassured her that we would enjoy our holiday and that she should not be too anxious to set off and we should get going in our own time. This morning, I wrote a range of letters to various people. As I was going to miss the Southoe Parish Meeting, I wrote out a letter to the Clerk and copied a number of papers for information. Then I wrote a general letter to the residents wishing to meet Redlands and used mailmerge to address them individually to them. I also wrote to Redlands themselves to confirm the arrangements. Next a letter to Huntingdon District Council about the mis-spelled ‘Rampley Lane’ road sign, asking them to remove the ‘e’. I copied this and the Parish Council Minutes, so as to provide Mrs Helen Ramply with a copy of each, to show progress. Lastly, I wrote out my speech with which to open the Southoe Fete this afternoon. In it I made a little joke about being worried over the weather, as the fete had always been fine for 10/20 years and if it rained, people would blame me!
I thanked the owner of Corner Cottage, Mr Norman Parker, for letting the village use his garden. Also Mrs Helen Ramply for making the fete arrangements, then listed the events and declared the fete open! Diana and I judged the Fancy Dress Contest, played on everything and bought freely from the stalls and there were races, a magician, raffles and prizes and the country dancing team from Buckden School performed. It was a pity that more people didn’t turn out, but the fete had coincided with events at Buckden and Paxton and the numbers were less than last year. At least the weather held up and the afternoon was successful. The attendance was still quite good and all the locals were there. I met Mr Ruff (Mrs Vera Ruff’s brother-in-law) who was displaying his hand made models of ancient farming machinery and bygone days and he had made them without lathes or even an electric drill. I drew the raffle and then the fete closed with all having enjoyed the time. Mr Parker is quite infirm these days and unsteady on his two sticks. He lives alone in the large building and I wonder how much longer he can go on in that way. We went home and then I started preparing the boat for our holiday. I loaded it up with tools, fishing tackle and wet weather things and then sorted out my clothes and got them loaded too. Then I went round the house, putting things away, unplugging appliances and switching things off. I put all my diskettes and other precious things into the fire proof safe and it was time to set off. We locked through the Paper Mill and then I dropped Di off at the Haylings for her to walk back and collect the Range Rover to collect David Tomblin from the station. David is Daniel’s ‘boat guest’ for a few days. They all joined us back at the boat at Coneygeare and we had some cake and tea until late. The girls enjoyed a play on the swings and I tended to a few things on The Lady. The boys to the Little Lady, the girls to bed, and we went to our bunks after 11.00pm after writing up my journal. The day had become cloudier and breezier but ended fine and at last we were on our boating holiday. No news tonight, as we had no time for the TV.