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An early start mopping down the Paxton Princess ready for our cruise as Diana prepared things within before breakfast on the Heronshaw veranda on a warm and humid morning as two more warm and fine days are forecast to come. Some poor service from Colin Facey's boat-yard in Horning and then on to Ranworth Broad where we moored with the mud-weight and used The Jolly to get ashore for lunch at The Granary where the food was good, but the service poor.
The Iraq leader appears on TV with some of the hostages today to help his propaganda, but it disgusted its western audience as an obviously put-up job.
I slept well overnight until the morning of although I seemed to need to get up quite often to go to the toilet. I had my shave and bath at Heronshaw and then mopped down the Paxton Princess ready for our cruise as Diana also prepared things within. We had breakfast on the Heronshaw veranda on a warm and humid morning and then we were all loaded and packed up in time to set off by 10.15am. We started with a short trip to Colin Facey's boat-yard in Horning to get a pump-out. They kept us waiting whilst they had their tea break and then charged us an exorbitant sum of £10 for a very messy job. We wanted some diesel fuel but decided against it when we found out the price of £1.65 per gallon compared with 60p on the Great Ouse, Wells etc.
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Between some time spent fishing this morning and evening, I order metal plates for extending the rotten uprights on the garage frame, had a nice lunch at the Bridge Restaurant after which we went to buy the drier of Di's choice which they installed in the afternoon.
The news is of the US mobilising its reserve forces and a military confrontation is increasingly on the cards. Bush calls up military reserves as American troop build-up in Gulf increases and oil reaches $30 a barrel. Most countries refuse to close their Kuwait embassies
I was awake and up very early on and watched a Heron stalking about on both sides of the dyke, fishing in the morning calm. I decided to join him and so fished from about 6.15am until 8.15am, catching some nice rudd on bread paste. We thus had a latish breakfast and I had a bath as the day started to get warm again. I drove to Stalham this morning and ordered metal plates from the engineers there. I had decided that one-foot plates were the best way of extending the rotten uprights on the garage frame and Jack had recommended these people to me. I also went to Wroxham and looked at "tumble-driers" for Diana and brought back a Hotpoint catalogue for her to study as we sat and had morning coffee. We then all went into Wroxham again to have a nice lunch at the Bridge Restaurant after which we went to buy the drier of Di's choice which they undertook to come and install in the afternoon.
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We managed to restore the Heronshaw water stopcock with Jacks help and then met Gordon from next door and his two sons that Debbie and Helen were taking a close interest in. After taking up an expensive parking place at Bonds, we had coffee at Jarrold’s and then all met to go to the Norwich Castle Museum with a tour of the ramparts and dungeons that the girls enjoyed. Some fishing this evening and strange to see it is now dark at 8.30pm. The US and Britain reject talks until Iraq withdraws from Kuwait.
We had settled back into our morning routine on and I had my slots to shave and bath at Heronshaw. We had a late breakfast which coincided with Jack arriving to help free up the water stopcock. I put off my meal and went to work with him and we were successful in getting it done. It will be useful to have a proper way of isolating the water supply. I met another of the sons next door - Gordon - who seemed very friendly and he has a young family including two boys that Debbie and Helen were taking a close interest in. We eventually left for Norwich at 10.15am but had trouble parking until we ended up at the Bonds department store car park which cost us £10 per day! We had "elevenses" at Jarrold’s then split up with me taking the girls to the toy shop and Di doing some other shopping.
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After Daniel had reported a lack of attendance by our gardener at Paxton, we found out by telephone that he had been accepted at UEA for his Computer Science Degree. I worked on all evening servicing the boat and ran into great difficulty but I finished the job and then I stayed up and wrote up my logs and journals before turning in, very tired, at 11.00pm.
All the news is of the Iraq conflict and the UK and USA are out on a limb with their blockade until they can get UN backing. Bush warns that Iraq will be held responsible for the safety of US citizens.
We had another slow morning on with Di laying in and Della coming into my bunk to play before we could get going. After having my drinks, I enjoyed a shave, hair wash and bath in Heronshaw and then telephoned Daniel again after breakfast. He worried me again by reporting that he had seen no gardening activity and no writing in the gardening book. We set off to Wroxham for morning coffee and shopping. I had a melancholy interlude; a bit depressed about the non-performance of the gardener and concerned about Daniel's chances of getting into university with his low grades. Once back at the boat, I made some organising telephone calls and tried to arrange for an electrician to come and fix the thermo-stat on our immersion heater as well as get the forms for registering our "Jolly".
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