The month closed calmer after some strong winds and heavy rain, causing flooding the West Country and the snow in Northern England was later working its way south but the thick fog cleared and the sun came out to present an exceptionally still, mild and sunny day for my Dad’s funeral at St James Church, interment at Little Paxton Cemetery and reception for a coach load of mourners at The Hayling View.
I managed to settle Mum back into her Stanton mobile home afterwards with the help of neighbours and carers and visited her there as we drove to and from The Norfolk Broads to buy and commission our new boat.
Daniel and Deborah did well at Kimbolton School and pleased us accordingly. Debbie continued to enjoy her pony Sundance and we took delivery of Daniel’s new £1,000 Commodore computer; both of these luxuries being their incentives to work particularly now that Daniel was accepted for a Computer Studies degree at The University of East Anglia.
I still found the time to organise a victory in the Eaton Socon by-election for Derek Giles with a landslide majority and I took fifteen of us to St James’s Church for the Family Carol service before inviting them home to The Hayling View for tea.
Each year the burden as well as the joy of Christmas becomes ever bigger. More and costlier cards, presents, decorations etc. After Christmas, we cruised in our new boat and I took Diana to the Swan when we were on the Norfolk Broads for a nice meal as our anniversary event to mark yesterday; 21 years married!
The national news was of 50 fellow Conservative MPs refusing to support Thatcher’s continued leadership and she is now isolated in Europe over monetary union and was outvoted 11 to 1 on the Social Charter and during a special conference at the EEC summit. The cruelty of the first forced repatriation of the Vietnamese boat people still rankled but new Tory MPs showed their true colours by being upset by the 140,000 Hong Kong people being given right of emigration.
December saw the climax of the reforms that have been sweeping Eastern Europe and the New Year saw half a million Germans from East and West celebrating the event by the Brandenburg gate. The whole of the East German Politburo resigned en masse, and free elections are due next May as the peaceful democratic revolutions in East Germany continue. The Czechoslovakian Prime Minister resigned, and the deputy premier formed a government consisting of a majority of non-Communist’s being sworn in as Alexander Dubcek stands in the wings.
Not peaceful in Romania; In an anti-government rally against leader Nikolai Ceausescu, clashes take place where ‘up to 2000’ are claimed killed as troops use helicopters, tanks and guns to crush protestors. Then the Romanian army captured and executed the deposed Romanian leader and his wife President Nicolae and Mrs Eleanor Ceausescu for allegedly being responsible.
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The month of December closed with some calmer, drier and milder days but also very foggy ones after being a mixed month of weather. There were periods of dry and cold weather then followed with strong winds and heavy rain with winds up to 90 miles an hour, with much damage done, which brought flooding to Cornwall and Plymouth. Heavy snow affected roads over the Pennines and in Scotland. By the end of the month, snow and sleet forecast was being forecast for the rest of us as snow began falling in Northern England and was moving southwards which prompted me to spend an afternoon clearing gutters and securing dinghies with a flood expected. A large earthquake hit New South Wales, Australia, where many were killed
It was a month of funerals, with my father’s the saddest and most traumatic but it also started with that of my Aunt Doris Antrobus, as another family contemporary passed away. There soon followed the very sad but comforting funeral of Dad early in the month and he was never very far from our thoughts throughout. His final "arrangements" were as convenient as ever; he was never one to cause any trouble and the event was soon over so that his loved ones could continue their lives and, in particular, their Christmas festivities. I had collected Dad’s old car from Stanton with Mum on an emotional day beforehand when I was preparing for the visit of our relations. We first welcomed Mum and then Freda and Alf and the rest of the day beforehand was spent in grief and reminiscing as we prepared The Hayling View for the funeral reception. On Dad’s funeral day, we awoke to find a thick fog, but it soon cleared and the sun came out to become exceptionally still, mild and sunny weather. It was a first class to send off for Dad! They certainly turned out for him; relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours alike. I was proud of the love he engendered and of the comments variously voiced that I was so much like him in terms of mannerisms, voice etc. The close family gathered with Mum at The Hayling View and then the cortege proceeded firstly to St James Church, Little Paxton, for the service. The coach I had organised had arrived from Stanton and many other cars as well went on to Little Paxton Cemetery for the committal where there was a long line of floral tributes which Funeral Director Peter McGarry read individually to Mum and I as we passed. Then afterwards the transport home to The Hayling View for the Wake where we set up Mum on her wheelchair in our front hall, welcoming each visitor as they came in for refreshments. Di’s family helped Joan dispense a seemingly endless supply of tea, sandwiches, cakes, mince pies and sausage rolls. Contrary to my prediction, they had a good appetite and we could hardly keep up with it. It was a fine and happy occasion; the service and burial had been well done, the whole well attended and the companionship a great comfort and compensation. We particularly thanked The Rev Peter Lewis for his service and the Funeral Director for the arrangements. The taxi took mum back to Weald House and the rest of us tidied up the chairs and collapsed with exhaustion. Mum was still being vague about her future but at least we were able to have Mum to stay and she recovered well from her bereavement and was pleased to come. Intense family discussions followed about Mum trying seriously to stay back at Stanton and she resolved to do so after some persuasion. We paid another visit to Dad’s grave on a fine morning the day after to see his flowers and tributes again before I took Mum back home to Stanton once we had packed up her things in Dad’s old car to take her there. I had a chat to a few neighbours and made some arrangements before returning home to collect the rest of Mum’s things from Weald House. I arrived early at Stanton as planned early on the day following on another dry but misty morning but was dismayed to see that the hospital blood test and the doctor’s appointment had been deferred until the next day so that Freda and Alf could get to the railway station and thence home. I phoned and managed to reinstate these (just) and learnt a lot about Mum’s condition and capabilities from being there when they came. We had visits from the home help manager, the caravan site manager and friends and an occupational therapist visit is now planned soon. so as to be available to reassure and help Mum by telephone on her first day at home but she was eventually settled down by her home help Doris and the district nurse organiser visiting and by Marie bringing a meal from next door. I returned soon after collecting Della from school and I took Debbie with me to Stanton to visit Mum where they played a good game of Scrabble as I tended to a few things to help. Doris, her home help, popped in and we agreed that Mum would then be all right. I made further visits and kept in touch and visited Dad’s grave in the cemetery to check his flowers. After several more visits, I finally collected Mum from Stanton and brought her back to Horning on Christmas Eve when Mum chatted excitedly until we put the Christmas presents out. I took Mum to see Dad’s grave on Christmas morning before she enjoyed the day with us, and I took her home in the evening. Apart from a couple of frustrated calls from Mum over the inevitable administration delays I experienced with dad’s estate; she was now well settled in a better state when I called in again later on the way to Norfolk
As far as the family were concerned, we have all been well and fairly fit and quite untroubled by the 'Flu epidemic for the most part, but both the girls had colds which became a little ‘flu-like for Debbie at one point when she was at home ill all day, being sick. We only had a little post-Christmas flatulence and trauma to cope with which is better than most. Both Daniel and Deborah did well at Kimbolton School and pleased us accordingly. Debbie continued to enjoy her pony Sundance and we took delivery of Daniel’s new £1,000 Commodore computer; these luxuries being their incentives. Now, as well as his driving lessons, and Daniel being pleased at the end of school term coming, he must keep up his "A" Level studies to get his grades for studying for a Computer Studies degree at The University of East Anglia. He had the choice of others, including Brunel University, but he chose the UEA as he liked the area, campus and the computer department gave him a good impression.
I had joined Diana for some Christmas shopping in Cambridge when we met Di’s parents for coffee as well and I treated her to lunch at the Greek bistro restaurant before we joined her family at Bar Hill for her Uncle John’s 70th birthday lunch buffet. Things were not always harmonious. After an upset with Di, and her sleeping in the spare room, I awoke to morning tea but then found the family had left without me and so I made my own meal, did my chores and then completed Christmas shopping in St Neots on my own. That evening, I read my books on navigation then spent all the following day preparing and personalising my Christmas Cards and the evening studying navigation on VHF radios. I stayed at home putting up the Christmas lights as Diana went to buy a Christmas tree in Bedford. After Christmas, I took Diana across to the Swan when we were on the Norfolk Broads for a nice meal as our anniversary event to mark yesterday; 21 years married! To be fair, on some occasions, being busy, I was less considerate and romantic and just sought sexual relief with Diana quickly before we got out in the morning! At other times, we had more restful family mornings tending the ducks and doves, feeding the Koi Home before a nice Sunday lunch of roast lamb.
I took Di to see Della’s Christmas play at Little Paxton school one afternoon and we attended the Brownies Carol Service with Della another evening. We went to see Deborah’s school pantomime performance and took turns at other times dropping Debbie off and collecting her from horse riding. We had become disillusioned with Fiona’s riding stable, with most other clients having gone, and we made some efforts to try and find a new livery stable for Debbie and Sundance without result so far.
I took fifteen of us to St James’s Church for the Family Carol service before inviting them home to The Hayling View for tea. Then a delightful family day followed for opening presents, enjoying Christmas dinner and listening to the Queen’s speech before watching the film ‘Crocodile Dundee’ on TV. Another visit to St James Church, it being the 5th Sunday of the month and the day for a Family Service but it was poorly attended at this time of year, but we came home afterwards for a nice lunch of turkey vol-au-vents. With Christmas over, I tended Dad’s grave and did some general tidying work in the cemetery and then worked on Dad’s estate administration that evening with him uppermost in my thoughts. When we were in Norfolk on our new boat after Christmas I took Daniel and his friend Gary into Norwich to see the film ‘Back to the Future II’, which we thoroughly enjoyed, and Daniel and Debbie to see ‘Ghostbuster II’ one evening.
Another big event of the month was the final discovery of our ideal boat after many years of searching; one that was equally suitable for cruising the Broads, the Great Ouse and the coasts in-between. In fact, I thought of calling it "Discovery" as an apt and brief name for radio reference. We spent the shortest and darkest days of late 1989 aboard her in Norfolk and it passed its test. I had driven to Heronshaw in Horning, after visiting Mum in Stanton, to check on my new place and then on to Brundall to view this possible next boat if its bridge clearance would suit it to the Great Ouse. When I subsequently heard the good news that it had a lower air draft than thought, making it an ideal next choice for us, I quickly made a cash offer and Jim Cole of the Norfolk Yacht Agency revealed that this offer of £52,500 had been accepted. We had a trial run on a wet day on this our new boat (currently named Rolyat Princess) and completed the purchase and parted with a cheque for £52,500 and the family were bowled over with it! At home, I went out to work on The Lady and laid it up for the rest of the winter and took off her the things I would need for her replacement. I bought some brushes at Harry Kitchener and load up the Range Rover for the morning when we intended to collect the new boat and then set off in a fully-loaded Range Rover with Daniel and Gary to collect her from Brundall, I eventually got the release of the vessel and we cruised down The Yare to Reedham for the night as the rain poured down. We stayed on board the Rolyat Princess for a very stormy night, before crossing Breydon Water and getting safely under the Bure Bridges (which we cleared easily even though the water was abnormally high) and then moored in Yarmouth for some shopping. When eventually we arrived at Horning, we put the boat directly into Heronshaw wet dock. Although much of Horning was under flood water, we had no trouble. After a quiet and comfortable night at our Heronshaw moorings, the boys and I worked to clean off and stow the large dinghy, lay a power line to the new boat dock and then buy some chandlery in Wroxham, to leave our new acquisition safely protected from frost. Once back home in Paxton, I organised a new folder for the boat which proved to be very impressive. Between Christmas and New Year, Di and I made the decision to spend a few nights on our new boat and so, we set off on the first day and arrived in Wroxham for some more purchases by 3pm and were then on the boat at Heronshaw by dusk, before we retired to our bunks for the night. After an unsettled night on our new boat, we cruised to Acle Bridge for water via Horning village for supplies and then on to Great Yarmouth for the night to work on repairs and improvements. Our routine was for me to get up first to put on the boat heating and boil the kettle when, after dressing quickly, with me at the helm, the others used the nice hot water in the shower and then I got Daniel and Di to steer as I did the same thing. We had some difficulty struggling to get back to Horning in the dark and to make the TV work, but we then had a warmer and more comfortable night after which I got the television working. We planned to go to the Earls Court Boat Show the following Friday.
Apart from my family and boating events, I still found the time to organise a victory in the Eaton Socon by-election for Derek Giles with a landslide majority. I had rushed back from Norfolk for an evening Little Paxton Parish Council meeting and subsequent Christmas social, which went well. Over the Christmas period I found some time catching up on council casework and voluntary endeavours. During a typical morning, I was working hard in my office on all manner of council and private business, with time in the afternoon for domestic affairs until back to work in the evening catching up with filing and my finances. The council work resumed with some Paxton Ward issues as Diana delivered the resulting correspondence, then with some visits to Southoe before off to Huntingdon for committee meetings. One evening, I attended a very smoky Liberal Democrats meeting which went on for far too long but as a result I started trading Democrat diskettes with Roman, where we had saved good newsletter copy and artwork. Each year the burden as well as the joy of Christmas becomes ever bigger. More and costlier cards, presents, decorations etc. With its origins as a pagan festival to enlighten the darkness of winter, it is ever able to conceal the true meaning of the Christian festival as people jostle in ever-busier shops and travel in ever-busier cars and other forms of transport. What price Ebenezer Scrooge now!
During the month, the news national news was of 50 fellow Conservative MPs refusing to support Thatcher’s continued leadership. Thatcher is now isolated in Europe over monetary union and was outvoted 11 to 1 on the Social Charter and during a special conference at the EEC summit, with the others are going ahead regardless. The government forcefully repatriated the first 62 Vietnamese boat people from Hong Kong, despite being under attack for failing to offer safety for these refugees. The cruelty of the first forced repatriation of the Vietnamese boat people still rankled but Tory MPs showed their true colours by being upset by the 140,000 Hong Kong people being given right of emigration, with the UK Home Secretary Douglas Hurd having to act to quell the Tory rebellion over Hong Kong emigration In London, Vietnamese refugees still held a rally to demand an end to repatriation with stories of force and violence being used against them. The Archbishop of Canterbury joined the ranks of those criticising Britain’s repatriation policy, the government seemed finally to be settling on a figure of 200,000 for Hong Kong professionals who wish to return here. After much lobbying, war widows eventually get a further £40 a week and locally a backbench Tory revolt made Cambridge County Council rule out the Tory plan to discontinue the school meals service in this area. Opinion polls show Labour well in the lead over the Tories. The Ambulance talks break down so that the dispute carried on over Christmas and the political New Year’s messages abandoned the centre ground. An IRA attack on a NI checkpoint kills two soldiers and maimed another and there was the tragic news of the death of six fishermen on fishing boat Destiny off Gourock in the Firth of Clyde in foul weather when trying to catch prawns prior for Christmas. As the month’s sporting triumph, we watched Desert Orchid, the legendary grey, overcome a huge handicap to again win the King George VI Gold Cup again against all of the odds.
Elsewhere, the world looks like becoming a much more democratic place (in the East anyway) even if such birth-pangs give rise to more instability. Thing are changing so fast that we have much to worry about. December saw the climax of the reforms that have been sweeping Eastern Europe and the New Year saw half a million Germans travel from East and West celebrating the event by the Brandenburg gate. Mikal Gorbachev met Pope John Paul II and established relationships between the Vatican and the USSR as the Eastern European revolutions continue apace but, off Malta, a storm blows up and strands President Bush on a battleship, but he eventually joins the reconciliation party. Mikhail Gorbachev has said that his Russian Communist Party must reform or lose power as the sad news emerges of the death of Dr Andre Sakharov a well-respected Soviet moral giant of a man and scourge of the establishment who died of a ‘heart attack’ which I prayed was the truth. The whole of the East German Politburo resigned en masse and former members are arrested for misdeeds. Egon Krantz, the East German State President, resigns. An ex-leader is arrested on corruption charges and free elections are due next May as the peaceful democratic revolutions in East Germany continue. Parties in Czechoslovakia at first differ over the Cabinet membership. The Czechoslovakian Prime Minister resigned, and the deputy premier formed a government consisting of a majority of non-Communist’s being sworn in as Alexander Dubcek stands in the wings. In Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, 60,000 people have been on the streets calling for reform. In a Romanian anti-government rally against leader Nikolai Ceausescu, clashes in Romania take place where ‘up to 2000’ are claimed killed as troops use helicopters, tanks and guns to crush protests. Then news that the Romanian army captured and executed the deposed Romanian leader and his wife President Nicolae and Mrs Eleanor Ceausescu for allegedly being responsible for 60,000 people deaths in the uprising. Three of ex-president Ceausescu relatives are arrested and his brother committed suicide.
The US mount an abortive attempt to seize President Noriega of Panama but, although the US invasion left troops are in control of all the bases, they had not caught General Noriega who sought political asylum in the Vatican diplomatic mission. USA continue hounding deposed Panamanian President Manuel Noriega there but President Bush admits searching the home in Panama of the Nicaraguan ambassador was a mistake. The USSR has called on the United States to withdraw its forces from Panama immediately and Panamanian Bishops are pressing for General Noriega to be turned over to the Americans, but I it is not clear that the Vatican will allow it. The situations in Romania and Panama remain dangerous and uncertain. A peace demonstration in Jerusalem was broken up with undue brutality, injuring 55 people.