I spent the morning in Cambridge having coffee with Diana’s parents at Edenderry’s making arrangements for organising a Jackson family lunch at the healing view after which I bought a new telephone answering machine and a wall mounted netball ring which the children loved as I installed it in the garage wall next to the pool. This evening at the St Neots SLD meeting where we made plans years County Council elections. News today of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet party conference where debate was allowed the first time in 30 years. A callous IRA bomb attack in Ulster seriously injures a 15 year old girl
Awoke reasonably on time today and, after my shower, decided to dress in clothes suitable for going out and joining Di and Della on their trip to Cambridge. We set off and hand delivered a number of notes to various local people, to save stamps, and my letter to the St Neots local newspapers. We arrived in Cambridge and parked in the Round Church car park and made our way to have coffee with Di’s parents in Eaden Lilley’s. Made arrangements for them to use our house on Sunday 31st July 1988 for a family lunch party and undertook to do the artwork and duplication of the invitation cards. We had lunch at a restaurant normally a haunt of the students, but empty at this time of year and shopped on after lunch for a while before coming home. I bought a new telephone answering machine and installed it on my return – and a wall mounted netball ring, which proved to be a great success with the children in the swimming pool, as I put it up on the garage wall next to it.
This evening, I attended the local St Neots SLD committee meeting and we concentrated on plans for next year’s County Council elections and the need to circulate FOCUS newsletters regularly in our target wards between now and then. We also agreed to approach Peter Wilmer, the ex Ekins Auctioneer and husband of the present retiring West Hunts County Councillor, to stand for us, which might well secure the seat. Home rather late, but still found Diana up and so chatted a while before turning in. Main news today is of Mikhail Gorbachev’s 3 ½ hr speech to the USSR Communist Party Conference, where debate will be allowed for the first time in 30 years. Another callous bomb attack in Northern Ireland, this time by the IRA on a school bus, seriously injuring a 15 year old girl. It seems that they were after the driver in this ham-fisted and counterproductive attack.