With my cold worsening into chest congestion, I stayed at home with Della today as she was also ill and listless. The Focus newsletters had been held up Glisson but were being expedited the next day. Derek and Sandy were worried about their son Anthony, being sent to the Gulf with ware expected and Debbie returned very late from a school theatre trip to London.
The US and EEC are each blaming one another for GATT talks stalling after Thatcher departing stiffens the European approach to trade. Share applications for the Electricity privatisation were hopelessly over-subscribed
My cold was worse this morning and, although it was not streaming, it had got to my chest making breathing and exertion difficult. Della was still not very well and lay in the playroom, looking at video films all day. Diana took Debbie to the Junior Carol service at Kimbolton Church and they enjoyed this whilst I stayed in to look after Della. I used the time to start the re-organisation of the Little Paxton FOCUS rounds into smaller areas, but I did pop out for a short while to get some more diskettes and stationery from Clover Office Supplies.
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The weather continues to deteriorate with cold winds and rain here, but in the Midlands and North, there had been heavy snow falls. I was trying to contact Percy Meyer all day today and, when he eventually returned from a mammoth shopping expedition with his wife, he had no news from the FOCUS printing at all and did not think that he was supposed to be chasing it! The news from Glisson was that only one side of the FOCUS had been printed and, although I could speak to Sue Sutton who did not know what was going to happen, I had to wait until later this evening before being able to get hold of John Matthewman and establish that he was going in personally tomorrow to do the other and to get them folded as well.
Derek Giles came round and brought with him a quantity of yellow card which I needed. He and Sandy are pre-occupied with the fate of their son, Anthony, who is a Marine bandsman and has been called over to the Gulf to train for their war-time duty of stretcher-bearing. I worked the evening and then settled down for a while to watch a little late TV with Diana before going to bed. She had to stay up to wait for Debbie to come home from a school theatrical trip to London and it was after mid-night before she returned which I thought was a bit silly for term-time.
The news today is of continued recriminations over the breakdown in the GATT talks with the US and EEC each blaming one another. America has been too used to getting its own way for too long and will have to allow Europe to make more of the running or at least allow matters to proceed at a more European pace. They have lost their ally of Thatcher in the camp and it is showing as the British spokesmen support the EEC position rather than being critical of it. The share applications for the Electricity privatisation are hopelessly over-subscribed which means that, after they are scaled down, the amount people will get will not be worth having and so I made a good decision in not bothering to apply.