Daniel and I leaving our Blackpool holiday for the day to visit home, meet up with Kimbolton School Headmaster Mr Peel and Head of Chemistry Mr Watson to persuade Daniel to take the subject at A-level and then for me to attend the Parish Council meeting for the important dog fouling measure discussion before driving back in heavy rain and squalls to arrive very late.
This morning turned out to be wet and windy in marked contrast to yesterday afternoon and so, after breakfast which we enjoyed, we took the car to the town centre and went shopping in an indoor centre. We had coffee at Boots and a little look round but then, after some time in Dixons, Daniel and I decided to make a start on our visit home. I thought we could have left midday, and this was subsequently born out, but it was probably best to avoid the risk of traffic hold-ups on the motorways as a lot was at stake. Once we found ourselves to be early, we stop the car and I phoned ahead Mr Peel’s secretary and he managed to see us early at Kimbolton School. He is an active headmaster, who is trying visibly to improve the school’s academic performance and width of curriculum. We met and discussed Daniel’s exam results and learnt that he was unlucky to miss out on French but that his other results were no fluke. An ‘A ‘at physics, a ‘B ‘at additional maths are both very good results and evidently his Chemistry ‘B ‘was not far off being an ‘A ‘. Mr Peel concurred with my assessment of Daniel’s abilities and need to specialise on the science side and did his best to encourage Daniel to offer Chemistry and suggested we talk to Mr Watson, the Head of Chemistry, before making a final choice anyway. Luckily, Mr Watson was in school supervising the commissioning of the new Science Block and we got a chance to see both him and the new facilities at the same time. He felt Daniel would cope well with the subject and Daniel was impressed with the new laboratories and so agreed to take Chemistry.
With Watson as an examination board examiner and a strong team and school specialisation in this science, Daniel would undoubtedly find the department well motivated and able to exploit his potential to the full. On home after and Daniel went to see Debbie and Lisa and overcome his withdrawal symptoms from his Hi-Fi. Problem was, we had only recently bought it for him and he had still been in his first flush of enthusiasm when we whisked him away! I ran around making calls and photocopying press releases and information for this evening’s Parish Council meeting. Just about made myself ready, after hand delivering releases to The Express and the St Neots Weekly News, and scrambled along to the Village Hall. A long and difficult, but lively, meeting with the Chairman leaving the vexed question of Dog Fouling Bylaws until the very end, even though I had to drive back to Blackpool and there were two members of the public who had to sit through all of the proceedings until the item came up. I lost the campaign for ‘Poop Scoop ‘ measures, but one the battle for a dog free children’s play area and so that was an improvement. Pity was that Ian Gunn had handed in his resignation due to what he described as ‘work commitments meaning that he could not do justice to the position ‘and it seems that my opposition might have pushed him over the brink. The proceedings were a poor advertisement for the Parish Council and certainly made a meal of things, but at least decisions were taken. It was 10:30 PM if I could collect Daniel from the house and set off on the 215 mile journey to Blackpool. We arrived at 2 AM after averaging 70 to 80 mph and travelling through some atrocious rain and wind squalls at least the traffic was light and it was certainly the right time to travel as there were many lane closures.