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After another unsettled night because of our bedroom temperature, I came down to find Diana tense over family issues and the return of Pete and Joan today. A little time for Amy and Catherine Law to come around and play with the girls, before I took Di and the girls to St Neots for our morning drink and then Debbie to go horse riding. My efforts to catch up with my paperwork made limited progress before I walked around the village for a couple of hours this evening.
Heinz are having to scrap thousands of cans of baked beans after malicious tampering with glass, there are more food bacteria and pollution scares and news of the fight to death in Beirut between Syrian backed Moslem and Iraqi backed Christian militia with mass rocketing of suburbs and killing and maiming of civilians.
I awoke quite early after a mixed night, first the bedroom was too hot; then too cold and I had left asleep in the spare room as a result. I came down to my morning tea and chatted to Di, who was tense over her sister-in-law and the stresses of return to the routine with both older children going off for their school trips early tomorrow morning.
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I had an early start, suffering from a twinge in my back, to prepare Debbie for her horse riding this morning. Once at Offord, we cooked up Mr Smith’s horse trailer and safely loaded Sundance aboard, getting quite wet in the pouring rain in our old clothes accordingly. We arrived early at the Thorney venue, with time to spare for preparation after which Debbie had obtained a deeper certificate but was disappointed with her performance in the cross-country competition. We were joined by Alex Taylor and her pony for the return journey. A heart-to-heart with Daniel over his schoolwork and speedboat and news tonight is of the criticisms of the government’s NHS reforms. The local government dispute is settled with the new 8.8% wage offer, but now French air traffic engineers are disrupting holiday travel leading to more flight delays
It was an early start for me as I had to be prepared to get Debbie to her horse riding early this morning. A rather nervy start as well because I have now got a twinge in my back after trying to move Daniel speedboat last night. Eventually away and to the riding school in the pouring rain added to our troubles. We hooked up Mr Smith’s horse trailer and managed to get Sundance in okay and fed him there to reassure him.
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After loading up our speedboat and Little Lady onto their trailers, the dinghy on to the Range Rover roof rack and dozens of bags full of clothes and belongings into the Little Lady, a virtual luggage annex, we started to make ourway home to Paxton but first dropped in on my parents in Stanton where we found my mum and dad in pain and distress after a bad night.
Almost fainting with pain, Dad was determined to drive to Cambridge for his radiography appointments and my sister was due to arrive from Cornwall later to help. Eventually I persuaded Dad to let me drive him to Addenbrookes, before which I dropped Di off with the goods and trailer to Paxton. I saw the Doctor with Dad and the news was not good as the extent of the growth was extensive and had spread from the ear lobe to the lymph gland so they could only treat his condition and not cure it.
He was prescribed some more painkillers, which was of some consolation. I drove Dad back to Stanton, had tea with Mum and Dad and Freda (the first time the four of us had been together for 25 years or more, and probably the last time) and then drove back at Paxton where I fell into a long and deep sleep.
The news today was of the Commons Select Committee on Health slating the Tories for their so-called ‘reforms’. The Lebanese hostage rows go on with all sides recriminating
I slept well enough at Brundall in my new sleeping bags; the pity was to get them so late in the holiday to be of little use. We did well last night to get the two boats onto their trailers and so we only had the dinghy to recover, wash and strap onto the roof rack on the Range Rover. That done, I went to fill up with petrol and water for a long journey. There were dozens of bags full of clothes and belongings that Di prepared, and we loaded them up onto the Little Lady and quite filled the cabin and cockpit as a result.
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I was more comfortable in our new sleeping bags after a very warm night, but was woken up at 6am again, this time by the traffic. It was nice to buy bread and milk from a grocer who came around with his trolley before we cruised downstream to Brooms Marina before having lunch. Then with the Range Rover to Wroxham to meet up with Richard Allen at the George Smith boatyard to see their new centre cockpit cruiser which was good but lacked bunk length and headroom. Once back in Brundall, I took the Range Rover to Burgh Castle Marina, collected the speedboat trailer and returned to successfully slip the speedboat and the Little Lady on to their trailers before dark.
It was a very warm night which made it difficult for us all to sleep. I was comfortable in my new sleeping bags, but it was too warm to have them done up. I was just dozing off, however, when Debbie came in to moan and I could not get off to sleep again before midnight. This morning, the traffic woke us up at 6am as well! It was nice to see the grocer coming round with a trolley at these Norwich moorings and we bought our milk and bread from him for the day. After breakfast, I took Di to look at the pictures in the Elm Hill Gallery, but she did not like them sufficiently to justify a purchase at that price.
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