We feel an Earthquake in Shropshire this afternoon measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale after we took the Rolls Royce in the pouring rain to P & A Wood in Essex fore service and repair. I had a planning meeting with an important item for Little Paxton on the agenda; and I made a logical and eloquent speech but the committee chose to ignore me and the vote was lost.
The Poll Tax information arrived in Government white, orange and green leaflets all with great complexity and the switchboard at Huntingdonshire District Council have been jammed with enquiries. Elsewhere, the prisoners at riot-hit Strangeways Prison in Manchester are still in control and one of the injured sex offenders has since died in hospital of his injuries; meaning murder.
Awake early again, even though I was tired and have been missing quite a bit of sleep. I dressed in sports jacket and trousers before breakfast as we were due to take my Rolls Royce to a new service dealer today. We left after breakfast, once Della was at school and Debbie was at horse-riding. It was pouring of rain which was a pity to take the Rolls Royce out but it drove well and the weather cleared up from time to time later. I drove on ahead to P & A Wood in Essex and Di followed in the Range Rover to pick me up. I got a chance to see around the place and it was full of all types of Rolls Royces - old and new. They are restoring on behalf of the manufacturer the original Silver Cloud that completed the endurance run in 1907 and gave the Rolls Royce its reputation for reliability. Also an original prototype of a Bentley. They also had the latest version of a brand new Bentley Corniche Convertible, worth £140,000. They are going to do an "Inspection and Report" and then discuss with me on Wednesday which of the items that they find are to be done at this time.
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We had a nice drive back together across the Essex countryside and I could not help thinking how nice and tidy it was compared with Cambridgeshire. Once home, we collected Daniel and went off to the Southoe Little Chef for lunch to save Diana the trouble. Made a few phone calls this afternoon and then relaxed in the lounge for a cup of tea after feeding the fish. It was then that I experienced the largest earth tremor - in fact the only one - of my life. I seemed to be rocking from side to side (building up to about half an inch a couple of times a second over a period of several seconds) and then I looked up to see and hear the brass companion set by the fireplace jangling. Daniel also felt it upstairs. I checked around the house and it did not seem to cause any damage in relation to the shrinkage that already needs tending to. Later I spoke separately to journalists at the Citizen and the Herald & Post and they confirmed other reports as far away as Alconbury and Peterborough and that Cambridge University had confirmed detecting it and was issuing details later. In the news tonight is was confirmed as an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale with its epicentre in the Wrexham area and that buildings in the Manchester, Birmingham and Shropshire had been damaged. Until this, Diana and Daniel did not believe me when I told them what it was. I had to do a few minor corrections to the election leaflets and drop the new copies to Percy at Offord on my way to Huntingdon tonight. I had a planning meeting with an important item for Little Paxton on the agenda; whether or not to give the coated stone (tarmac) plant permanent planning permission. I made what I thought was a logical and eloquent speech but the committee chose to ignore me and the vote was lost. The Poll Tax information came through the letter box today with a thud. Government white, orange and green leaflets in a buff envelope with further leaflets explaining the District and County charges all with great complexity. The switchboards at Huntingdonshire District Council have been jammed with enquiries and local councillors are getting complaints as many people are utterly confused and aggravated by the whole process. Today stayed mild but with many heavy showers that revealed our gutters to be too blocked to take the flow. Elsewhere, the prisoners at riot-hit Strangeways Prison in Manchester are still in control and one of the injured sex offenders who had been released has since died in hospital of his injuries; meaning that a murder enquiry is inevitable. Britain is actually going to reduce defence expenditure by 3% in real terms next year which is a triumph for pragmatism over dogma and about time too. Iraq has claimed the possession of binary chemical weapons that could destroy half of Israel in the event of an attack. The Tokyo stock exchange is falling by leaps and bounds.