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After a slow start to the day, I called the A1 Bluefields site owner and rejected the purchase due to their asking price after which first Percy and then Joy Standen arrived to discuss Council tactics. I ended up spending the morning discussing planning procedures after which I found the main issue could wait after all!
A row with Diana over taking phone calls as we ate our lunch and then the afternoon learning how to install my new boat battery chargers that arrived today and then this evening's meeting of the Kimbolton School Society's Committee
I slept well enough but was still not ready for the others at breakfast. When I am called as early as 7.00am, it takes me half an hour just to become sensible and drink my morning tea. I was ready soon enough afterwards and then settled down into my office and re-created my action list hoping to get some work done. I called the owners of the land near the A1 (Bluefields) and discussed a purchase price but they wanted some £30,000 for it when I was only willing to pay £18,500 based on my valuation. They say that they have others willing to pay more and so they must be advised to take that if it is true. Then comes Percy Meyer to do some photocopying for the press releases etc. and he stayed to chat for a while until we were interrupted by the arrival of Joy Standen, a fellow Little Paxton Parish Councillor.
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On a strangely mild and damp day after a very frosty I took Della horse-riding for the first time for several weeks, but I led her, and she managed to walk and trot aboard. Then before and after fine roast chicken lunch, distributing delivery rounds and meeting my constituents until home to rest and take some long phone calls with briefing and training our new councillor Derek Giles the longest.
Unrest in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, turning into anarchy with 30 killed and mobs rampaging, 43 die in a Spanish discotheque fire, 100 are feared dead in yet another Dhaka Bangladesh ferry sinking as back home Northern Ireland Minister, Brian Mawhinney, denies there is a Shoot-to-Kill policy
After it started very frosty last night, the early morning was quite mild and damp which was strange. It soon dried up and made a nice day for doing things and I had quite an active day physically. We had not gone to bed until after midnight and I was still groggy when woken at 8.20am. I was still lying in bed at 8.45am when Di broke the news to me that I was supposed to be taking Della horse-riding this morning and so it was all a bit of a rush. A nice fried breakfast and then off with our riding pupil. Our lesson was at 10.00am, but we were there early, and I got Della to pet "Minty" so that she would not be too nervous after several weeks without riding. Then Fiona gave us the news that she would be riding "Muffin" which came as a bit of a shock and she had a little cry! Muffin (I call him "Ragamuffin") is an hairy old thing that looks more like a donkey or an astrakhan coat, with hair so long. At 25, it is an old animal and so is very quiet and gentle. I led the pony during the lesson and Della rode as it walked and trotted, and she soon got used to the sensation again.
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With overnight frost giving way to a nice and sunny 9degC day, I spent another full day of time spent on Party matters after trying unsuccessfully to arrange some family chores and choreography ahead of parties. After sorting out my archives and inserting my Little Paxton History Bookmark Adverts into FOCUS's, and arranging delivery rounds I failed to find my helpers at home.
The news is of undercover soldiers in civilian clothes shooting three men dead in Ulster during a bank raid when they were using replica guns and then pumping further bullets into them whilst they were on the ground in a government shoot-to-kill policy. The widow of a man who died for lack of ambulance cover in Crawley does not blame the striking ambulancemen as 30,000 of them demonstrated in Trafalgar Square today and were joined by opposition politicians. Confusion in Rumania as first the provisional government ban the death penalty and then say it will be decided by a referendum. Then they say that the communist party is to be banned and then it is not..... and nobody knows where these revolutions will end.
Another full day of time spent on Party matters. This time I was later than the family to breakfast but dear little Della is so slow that she is always company for my late arrival. I started by trying to plan our family movements. The news from Carol Cranston is that they are not able to transport Debbie to and from her friend's Disco Party next Saturday and we can see no other way of getting her there with Ivy and Arthur's 50th anniversary on the same evening. They prefer to favour their arrangements for a dinner party with a political rival of mine. Then I wanted Di to get the dove and duck food from Sandy as she was going there later, but there was no way that she could get there in the morning and they are closed in the afternoon. None of my plans were working out! I had to leave the doves to scavenge on their own in the garden and I hope that they will be all right.
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A day spent almost entirely on local party matters after some time in my conservatory with my plants and fish reviewing some exotic seeds from Freda. With Michael Pope we prepared for our election campaigns in May with budgets and timescales that could see me getting a couple of colleagues on the District Council.
This afternoon documenting and circulated the plan to activists under confidential cover before attending the AGM of the local S.W.Cambs constituency Liberal Democrat Party where I resisted involvement on the executive. Daniel now faces his delayed driving test until March for lack of practice and the stock market is sliding again.
An active day, with the effort spent almost entirely on local party matters. I was awake a little easier this morning and then took a little time after breakfast feeding the fish and tending the plants. I have received some exotic seeds from my sister Freda, but I need to find out much more about them before I commit them to grow. At 9.00am, Michael Pope arrived, and we spent time discussing and resolving the initial preparation for our election campaigns in May. We produced budgets, time-scales and plans that could see me getting a couple of colleagues on the District Council yet.
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