After a disturbed night, I visited my solicitors in Wroxham and an estate agents before calling in at several boat builders before lunch at the Riverside café. After collecting Daniel from his visit to the Bloom family, we went to look at the Geo Smith 24ft day boat, which was fantastic but again expensive. We then set off under Wroxham bridge to Horning Ferry Marina and moored up for the girls to go swimming in the outside pool after which I tried fishing. News of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet reshuffle and of the Nat West bank implication in illegal dealings
I had a poor night’s sleep. At 11:30pm, a boat arrived and took ages to moor in the dark and then left its engine running and I had an argument its master before settling down again. I woke early this morning and went outside and did some fishing. This effort was rewarded by some nice roach and rudd needing the use of the landing net.
** PRESS "Read More" BELOW for the complete story **
Before long the boat crews woke up, the disturbances began, and flocks of geese arrived noisily to feed on their bread. After breakfast, I changed into sports jacket and trousers, wore a shirt and tie and went off to speak to my solicitors in Wroxham. I then went in to see Mrs Wood of the estate agents to see about Admiral’s Cottage. I told her that we were less interested now and then took details of other properties. Then Di and I went to talk to Moores about their ‘Merrymore’ boat and Porter and Haylett about their Connoisseur boat. We were impressed by both, but a bit startled that the cost of either would be up to £60,000 which seems a lot more compared with The Lady valued at some £10,000. I had lunch at the Riverside Café and then saw Daniel with the Bloom family and took him to see a private version of the George Smith day boat, which I thought was tremendously built and fitted out. I only wish that Di would have come along as well as she would have fallen in love with it. Then we set off through Wroxham Bridge and downstream, cruising gently until we arrived at the Horning Ferry Marina, where we managed to moor up next to the outdoor swimming pool in which Debbie and Della had a good swim. I helped a novice angler in a neighbouring boat land a fair size rudd and then walked into Horning to get some maggots to try fishing myself. I could only catch and eel but also lost a similar rudd which only took one of my two maggots on the hook. Later, I phoned the Smith family at Offord about the arrangements for our horse riding plans for the next few days and then took a walk around Horning Ferry Marina to look at all the different types of boat, which simply confused me even more. Di and I are having second thoughts about parting with The Lady and it is difficult to know what to do for the best. The news tonight is of Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet reshuffle in which Nicholas Ridley got the chop as environment secretary and, more surprisingly, John Major replaced Sir Geoffrey Howe as Foreign Secretary. Kenneth Baker becomes Tory party chairman to try to get the Conservatives back into a popular position. The party wisdom is that they need better presentation of policies, but the truth is that the policies on the Poll Tax, water and electricity privatisation and the environment are extreme and unpopular. In the city the National Westminster Bank, via its merchant bank, has been seriously implicated in illegal takeover share deals.