An early morning kerfuffle with Diana struggling to get Debbie and her bicycle to Kimbolton and back, with Della also struggling to be taken to school. Then a long and depressing call from my Mum discussing her intractable problems such as it was late morning before I could return to work. Another visit to my Dad this afternoon in Addenbrookes where the consultant surgeons had also yet to concur on whether to operate on my Dad.
An HDC planning meeting this evening considered a strange proposal for a ‘Trucker’s Paradise’. As the pound weakens, the stock exchange falls and mortgage rates rise to 14.5%, my old contact Tory chairman Kenneth Baker will tomorrow open the Conservative party conference. Thousands of protesters in East Berlin conduct a pro-democracy vigil
A slow start to the day as I came down to breakfast in my dressing gown and then took a while to get showered and dressed. Diana had problems trying to get Debbie and her bicycle to Kimbolton in the rain. The traffic was congested, and she was back late to take Della to school. The doors were unlocked, and I was in the shower, when Amy and Katherine arrived and Della got into a right state when they could not get in. Then my mum called, and I spent a long time listening to her problems on the phone which were pretty depressing and intractable.
** PRESS "Read More" BELOW for the complete story **
It was 11am before I could clear my desk of a mountain of rubbish, write up my journal and get started on my museum copy and other correspondence. The Koi appreciated the silkworm larvae that I brought back for them and, after they realised what they were, they ate them greedily. The tiny Gin-Rin Koi is eating the pellets now and will soon grow. It rained this morning and then the sun came out and it was much better and sunnier as Di went off, exhausted, to do her shopping. I managed to work on several items of importance but then lunch beckoned and had to go off to visit my Dad again this afternoon.
He looked better to me after he been moved again to a position between two other patients. One of them had an uncomfortable recovery from a nose operation and the other (with slurred speech) just been told that there was no operation possible to tackle his brain cancer. Between those two sad ‘bookends’, dad looked a lot better! He had seen both surgeon consultants Campbell and Lambertini this morning. The first was in a difficult position after what had happened, and the second was still keen on proceeding with an operation subject to the ENT and Neurology surgeons concurrence.
Home for tea and a brief hour to work on the museum launch documents before I went off to the HDC planning meeting to keep an eye on them. There was nothing of interest there, apart from a Godmanchester plan for ‘transport -related leisure use’ which was a bit odd and intriguing dubbed as a ‘Trucker’s Paradise’.
The news today was of a weakening pound and stock exchange, which was a dismal overture for my old contact and Tory chairman Kenneth Baker on the eve of the Conservative party conference. Today Halifax Building Society put its mortgage interest rate up to 14.5%. All this was of no consolation to the circus acrobat who left his van on a yellow line outside the Tory conference hotel – it was blown up by security forces! This evening saw yet more thousands of protesters out on the streets of Leipsic, East Germany. In East Berlin, thousands were gathered in front of the church for a pro-democracy vigil.