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The last day of our very enjoyable boating holiday cruising back home after coffee and lunch in Huntingdon with the rain in the air at the end of which has been a week with rain always being around. Then the huge task un-packing and carrying our things off the boat as we commission The Hayling View and settle in. The Lady had served us well and all else was fine at home whilst we were away. The IRA reveal that the car bombing deaths of a family of three was ‘a mistake’, Iraq forces start withdrawing from Iran after taking some 8,000 prisoners as hostages, three people are murdered today in England and there are more delays for air travellers.
Stayed up rather late at the Huntingdon Town Quay moorings, watching a TV programme about Whales and getting myself nice and tired, so as to sleep well in my small bunk. I also watched, with interest, the residents of the Mill Buildings opposite gradually switching their lights off, one by one, until all were extinguished. Slept well enough and only got up once or twice for the toilet and a drink of water. The rain poured down again all night to complete our fortnight with hardly a day free from rain the whole time! We got ready this morning and then walked into Huntingdon together to first have morning coffee above ‘Fine Things’ in the town centre. I made Della and Debbie share a chocolate fudge cake with me, as my token of parental control, where they really wanted one each. They are getting quite similar now, and giggle together at the table, as they grow up and their relative age difference narrows. I bought some papers and then returned to The Lady to read them and check on the TV cricket. On the latter front, rain had stopped play again.
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An uncomfortable night aboard the lady moored up at the Waites Quay but a convenient spot from which to buy some local papers, set off in the dinghy to LH Jones for some fuel and other items and then walked to the St Ivo centre for swimming after lunch at the Welcome Café. Surprised to find Huntingdon District Council colleagues at the pool but it was their recreation committee meeting day. 150 Devon patients have been overdosed with radio therapy in error, more fighting in the Gulf and setbacks for Red Adair dealing with the Piper Alpha aftermath, and the deregulated building societies and now lending money for all purposes, fuelling spending boom. Mr Brannigan of Samuel Jones has left the company, just as I got to know him.
Woke up a few times last night, as I still do not find these bunks very comfortable. At 7.00am I switched on the radio and started to read a book on Bowls, until Di eventually got up and made the morning drinks. Washed and dressed with Di and then, after breakfast, walked along St Ives High Street and bought today’s FT and a bunch of local newspapers for the local stories. Learnt that Branigan of Samuel Jones has got the push (just after I got to know him!). Longsands School is going to be closed until the Autumn, with the asbestos dust problem, and St Neots Football Club, having been deprived of the Samuel Jones ground, are now folding after a long history. Some old warhorse is criticising me for my aircraft noise comments. We then went shopping together, before Daniel and I set off in the dinghy to go to L H Jones for some fuel and bits and pieces.
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A slow start to the day and then a long walk to Waterbeach which had changed since last time but was a still pleasant enough place to eat ice creams under a beech tree. Then back to The Lady and the cruise down the Cam through Bottisham Lock and to stop at a rural pub for lunch. On to Pope’s Corner and up the Old West River and on through Hermitage Lock and to our favourite Waits Quay mooring where a torrential downpour put paid to any chance of fishing. The Lady celebrated her 2,000th milestone in her Cambridge birthplace, Glenn Ode Prison in Scotland is an inhumane warzone, Chancellor Nigel Lawson is getting ‘support’ from Thatcher as she is rumoured to bring back Alan Waters as adviser and interest rates rose today to a huge 11 ½ %. The government wants to sell off SHORTs, Ulster’s largest manufacturer and employer; Leon Brittan, former disgraced Cabinet Minister, is to replace Lord Cockfield as one of Britain’s two European Commissioners, because the latter has shown himself too independent and pro-European and ‘Red’ Adair, the Texan oil trouble shooter, working on the burning oil platform, reported that the worst well had been plugged and fire put out.
Slept well enough, but we lay in a very long time and the girls got rather restless waiting for their breakfast. Eventually up and breakfast together, with me closely regulating the amount of coco pops the children could have. It showered but was fine afterwards and so we all went on a long walk to Waterbeach to the shops and to get 3 gallons interim fuel supply for Daniel. A nice place, with a surviving triangular-shaped green, surrounded by buildings of all ages and architectures. There were several old ladies stopped on their bikes, chatting and passing the time of day together and we got the impression that the place retained a very good community spirit. One or two shops had closed since last time (the bakery/cake shop had now been developed as housing plots) but there is still a variety of shops around the green; far enough apart that the basket bicycles make the ideal means of shopping for the less mobile. We sat and ate ice creams under the Beech trees and then set off back. We cruised back down the Cam and through Bottisham Lock and then on to stop for lunch at the ‘5 miles from anywhere – no hurry’ pub, which was very pleasant.
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A good night at Clayhithe and then a day trip and back to Cambridge via Baits Bite Lock where Daniel’s friends join us and we have lunch at the familiar Copper Kettle. The weather at fine at first but the rain came later. A commemorative service today for the Piper Alpha victims, the UN try to mediate in the Iran/Iraq conflict and in Angolia and the government is under pressure on dental and optical charges as back-benchers rebel.
A good night’s sleep, after the unrest of yesterday. I was sound asleep until woken with my morning tea at 7.30am. We had a better attempt at our morning routine – without the arguments of yesterday. I had time for a little fishing, but the rain started and so we cast off and set off upstream on the Cam towards Baits Bite Lock. We knocked up the Irish Lockkeeper and he let us through and told us of the plans to electrify the lock later this year; removing the old mechanisms and implementing a self-operation procedure. The old place will no longer be the same, as a guillotine replaces the top mitre gates. On up to Cambridge, with the weather brightening up a little and becoming quite humid. We moored at our normal playground site and walked into town to do some shopping. My contribution was to get the bread rolls and some fishing bait and tackle. Met up with the others for lunch at The Copper Kettle, but Daniel had contacted his friends Gary and Steve by phone and they came to Cambridge to spend the day with him.