Working on my Council campaigns today, despite the distractions of Della’s over-night restlessness and cleaner Joan’s tales of woe about the serious illness of her father. Good meetings with HDC officers about my complaints and then home to cut the games lawn and seek more mole captures. An evening Barn Dance with neighbours and friends and late home. Gatting is fired from the England captaincy due to an indiscretion, following a tabloid witch-hunt and the stock exchange rises.
Slept OK most of the time, but Della was awake several times in the night and eventually wetted the bed. Di thinks that she reacted badly to the dust etc at the horse riding school and was awake with puffed eyes and a snuffle. I am not so sure. This morning, I attempted to get down to writing letters to all my leaflet delivery team. I set up my word processor and cut-sheet feeder to print out a special letter sequentially to each address, which I then stapled to a photocopy of the newsletter copy. Then a letter to each press contact, suggesting that a pre-release copy of this would be a good way of keeping them in touch. Ended up rushing to get the task done, particularly as cleaner, Joan Hewlett, was continually talking to me about her father’s plight. He is very ill with a liver and, now, general cancer and is deteriorating rapidly. I reassured her as best I could, allowed her to use the phone to try and get him moved to another hospital, and she repaid me by staying on a little bit and helping me by making my lunch.
Off then in the Rolls Royce to Pathfinder House, but I went via St Neots to drop off the letters for the HCN Express and the St Neots Weekly News. Once in Huntingdon, I first saw Eric Heads, Director of Technical Services, and he was later joined by Tony Acres. We had a 2 hour discussion on the Little Paxton and Southoe sewage disposal problems, which was a useful exercise. Then a bit of a rush to the Planning Department, where David Potter had arranged for details to be left out of the Management Agreement for the Paxton Pits. Home via St Ives to complete my delivery of press letters and then tea. Then I went out and cut the games lawn. No further signs of any moles, but I cannot think that the two I have now caught represent more than a fraction of the local population. Indeed, I believe that the colony becomes educated in the human techniques of eradication, rather like fish and angling. A bit of a rush to get ready for the Barn Dance. I opted for a check/short sleeved shirt, jeans, the leather braces and a straw hat with black ‘bovver’ boots, as I attempted to dress traditionally to aid the atmosphere. We sat on straw bales in a group of Diana & I, Pat & John Law, Helen & Eric Young, Linda & Ian, plus Pat & Percy Meyer, who came along to get to know Diddington and Southoe people. It was an active, but enjoyable evening, with a salad ‘supper’ brought in on a farm trailer, towed by a ‘team’ of men, whipped for speed by Gerald. Home at 1.00am and, with my rather extravert dress that stood out, there would be few present who did not realise that I was a patron. No time for my journal or the news this evening, but the main story still seems to come from Lords, where Gatting’s dismissal as Captain is confirmed; no other players are disciplined, and Embury (the Vice Captain) is announced as the Captain for the second test against the West Indies. A sad day, as it is the tabloid press that have stirred everything up and Gatting has issued writs for libel. The stock exchange continues its recovery, with Japan at an all-time high and heading for a ‘correction’ at some point.