Some more Little Paxton history research this morning and I am greeted widely as I walk around the village, but I was sad to hear of the ill health of the St Neots Museum Director. Trips out for lunch to the Sandy Happy Eater and on to Bickerdike’s for some more moss peat. Home to implement The Lady’s lay up procedure for frost protection. A powerful and controversial documentary this evening featuring the conservation and architectural concerns of HM The Price of Wales, lambasting some architects. Life sentences from the IRA members plotting to murder NI Secretary Tom King and rail fares are sharply raised prior to privatisation.
We had a lay in this morning and I then sat in bed a while and read up more on the Apple Mac. A rush to breakfast and then I sat and read the Investors Chronicle and Financial Times whilst waiting for the post. I then had an appointment to go and see the Shotbolts of Gordon Villas about the history of the building. In the event they did not have much to tell me and it was a bit of a wasted trip but I was glad of their interest. I walked home exchanging greetings with all I met and I am pleased to know so many Paxtonions these days. I worked on the Mac for an hour or so and was expecting the girls to arrive back to take me to lunch any time. Our house is too big! Di came home, failed to realise I was there, quietly working away in my office, and went round the village looking for me! Eventually off to lunch at the Happy Eater in Sandy and after to Bickerdike’s Garden Centre to look around and get some more moss peat for my lawn’s top dressing. This afternoon was contracted as a result and I then spent the rest of the afternoon on The Lady. It was a fine and sunny afternoon and I use the weather to take my tools into The Lady and lay it up for the winter. I drained the engine calling system, the water tanks and toilet flushing system so that the season’s frost could do no damage.
This took me until tea. This evening, I tried to do a little on my history project. I contacted the family of the St Neots Museum curator and I was pleased to hear that he would read my early history chapters. I was upset, however, to hear that he will not be recovering from his illness and the omens are bleak. I spent time preparing the copy manuscript and binding it for ease of access in his illness and even longer writing a sensitive and motivating letter to go with it. There seems to be so many people struck down with cancer these days. Later this evening, I watched and appreciated a documentary on architecture by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. It was a powerful answer to the Philistine aspects of the modern development community. The programme led to an immediate debate on another TV channel with the architects smarting with the criticism of their inhumane and impersonal creations. Other news today is of 25 year jail sentences for the IRA ‘terrorists plotting to kill Tom King’, the Northern Ireland secretary. Rail fares are to rise strongly in the run-up to future privatisation. The trapped Arctic Whales are free at last due to the combined efforts of the Russian icebreaking and the US and Eskimos chainsaws. Quite an endeavour and a truly happy ending.