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After a slow start due to several late nights I spent much of the morning editing my Riversfield chapter of my Little Paxton history, calling in later to see Ken Gambier and his managing director of Samuel Jones paper Mill, Mr Brannigan, to return their archives and talk to them about local affairs. Then to prepare for my history talk to St Neots Rotaract club this evening when they took a close interest. The TUC decide finally to suspend the EETPU, bank base rates are hiked again to reach 9% as fighting inflation at the expense of manufacturing is Nigel Lawson’s top priority.
Awoke rather groggily after several late nights to another warm and sunny day. Washed for breakfast and then a meal of these ‘new-style’ Jordans wheat flakes, that lacks the malt additive etc. It was quite palatable but will take a bit of getting used to. This morning started with my Financial Times and then, after helping Diana to load two armchairs into the Range Rover, I settled down to an editing exercise of my Riversfield chapter. Kept finding more of my notes to add, but I could not find my copy of the 1851 census, which I needed most. Lunch of salad, then, this afternoon at Samuel Jones Paper Mill, handing over the files to Ken Gambier, then chatting with Mr Brannigan, the Managing Director, about local issues. I put him on to the potential savings by classifying more of his business to be in Little Paxton, asked him to paint the ‘Stalag 5’ fencing green, but was sad to hear that they plan to do away with the social club building on economic and development grounds, as I was after the village utilising it as an amenity.
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Working on my Little Paxton history of windmills and watermills chapter, combining them all together, on a close and muggy day, as I also watched England lose the test match against the West Indies on TV and then making a big contribution to the environmental services committee meeting this evening much to the annoyance of chairman Councillor Mrs Beddows but to good effect. The BBC can now report on government secrecy, the EC rules that VAT applies to commercial property and the TUC and EETPU are falling out over non-strike agreements.
A good day working on the Samuel Jones documentation archives and witnessing the closing overs in the England vs West Indies test match on TV. Despite the best efforts of our tail-end batsmen, the endeavour came far too late and we lost by 160 runs. Lunch of salad and then this afternoon updating my history chapter on Riversfield and the Paper Mill. I have decided to widen it to include the corn, water and windmills all together. This evening was my first Environmental Services Committee at Pathfinder House and I got there in reasonable time and made an active (some would say a dominant) input to the meetings deliberations. I spoke out against the plans of NIREX for nuclear waste disposal, supported the continued existence of Papworth in-situ, rather than have it moved, pleaded the case of paid collection by the council of garden waste (which they supported), voiced concern over the sewage and road agency programmes and generally chirped up at every opportunity. Chairman Cllr Mrs Beddows was a bit grumpy with me, but the meeting was successful and still ended by 9.30pm.
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A warm and muggy day at home preparing the council committee meetings and progressing my local history project before an evening meeting of Priory Doom where I called for unity in preserving Priory Park as the natural barrier between St Neots and Little Paxton
A morning and afternoon shared between working in my office and watching the televised cricket. England were gradually bowling themselves into a losing position and the position was quite hopeless by the end of the day. For my work, I continued to prepare for my Council Committee meetings, getting information from Marion Woodbridge on Papworth and Mike Pope on Cambs County transportation issues. I was also getting slowly back to my local history project, with particular emphasis on copying the relevant sections of the Samuel Jones files, before Ken Gambier headed off for his retirement. This evening, I attended the committee meeting of Priory Doom and commented on my suggestion that trees be planted along Mill Lane to mark the end of the new housing zone; and I also tried to persuade them that they should share logos with the present DOOM to draw upon mutual support and recognition. Arrived home quite late on a warm and sunny day, with the air very muggy
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Father’s Day – A nice morning with the children who brought Father’s Day cards and presents and then the morning valeting my Range Rover and Rolls-Royce, in the afternoon attending to my games lawn and dovecote before time to cool off in my swimming pool with the girls before an evening working on my Little Paxton Paper Mill history. Thatcher is her normal bullish self at the economic summit eve and criticising soccer hooligans as hippies gather in vain to celebrate the summer solstice at Stonehenge for they are moved on.
Woke up Diana in the middle of the night for once and then slept soundly until woken by the morning sun and the girls venturing in. Di made my morning tea and then I sat in bed and opened my Father’s Day cards and presents from the children. Daniel bought me a print of a couple of birds, which may be Ibis. Della bought me two chamois leathers (courtesy of Diana!). Debbie had made me a paper weight by decorating a stone and I preferred to call it a ‘pet rock’. Just shaved and rinsed before a nice fried breakfast. I weighed in at only 13stone 1/2lbs this morning. This morning, I vacuumed the Range Rover and Rolls Royce, swept the road and then managed to sponge the Rolls over and leather it clean before lunch. A nice lunch of roast chicken that Diana had spent most of the morning cooking and then I had to return to shampoo, hose and leather the Range Rover clean. By now it was very hot in the sun, making car cleaning both exhausting and difficult. I took my rests today by sitting in the shade on one of my steamer chairs, relaxing and watching the river scene.