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After rising early this morning and seeing the kids off to school, I welcomed the arrival of my new gardener, Mark, on a breezier but sunny day; spending time with him to help him start his new job. Debbie found a new girl to hack with at her Staughton stables as I met colleagues to plan our contributions to this week’s council committee meetings. The HDC planning committee this evening, where I spoke on Diddington gravel extraction and was pleased to see our new opposition councillors making their impact.
A third IRA suspect was captured by Dutch police with the fourth escaping a roadblock, the EEC joins the USA in suspending economic aid to Romania, the British government removes £600m and 33 new Tornado aircraft from its defence budget as UK borrowing rises to 1.7 billion in May due to poll tax costs
I rose early this morning and undertook my normal chores before breakfast. I saw the girls off to school and Daniel to his room to study for his last remaining examination in Chemistry next Thursday. It was a bit breezier with showers forecast later, but at the least the weather started sunny for the arrival of my new gardener, Mark. He turned up on time and I got him started on the task of mowing the lawns. He had to get used to the mowers, but he made out all right and I allowed plenty of time to supervise him to start with. I also managed to get some financial planning and correspondence done between times and then had lunch with Di and Daniel. Dan was hanging around, rather bored, this afternoon and then went out this evening and he is longing to get this Thursday's Chemistry exam over.
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A warm and fine Fathers' Day attending Nigel's Hail Weston Fun Run hosting and driving Sir Anthony Grant, our Member of Parliament, as a member of the Official party to the chagrin of the three Tory District Councillors. Di joined us later after Debbie’s hack and we dropped by Dad’s grave on the way home and then welcomed Charles and Chrisula with their new baby Crystal Louise Jackson.
Diplomatic peace continues to break out between Lithuania and the Kremlin as the Baltic State considers a "moratorium" on separation, IRA team member Donna Maguire, has been captured in a Belgian wood with a companion soon after and there are more problems in the City as certain major companies announce profit shortfalls and executive heads roll
The weather was still warm and fine today and ideal for Nigel's event. His company, Tensor Computers, had organised and sponsored a village sporting and social event on Hail Weston Playing Field. I got across there by 10.00am and helped with the reception of Sir Anthony Grant, our Member of Parliament, at Hail Weston House for coffee and escorted him throughout the morning as Nigel was running about organising the event. The races were a mile as a Fun Run and then the more serious 12 kilometre race. These were duly started by Sir Anthony giving a speech and then Nigel setting off a maroon which rose like a rocket and exploded with a loud bang. There is little that Nigel organises that does not involve the use of fireworks as he has always been a maniac pyrotechnic! The funny thing was that there were three Tory District Councillors there and they were puzzled that I was driving "their" MP around and being with the official party, whilst they were running and taking part!
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The Kimbolton School Sports day with Della and Daniel on another really warm day meeting up with Nigel and Lynne Smith as Debbie goes horse-riding and finds an older girl to go on a hack with. Then to collect Debbie and go to the Little Paxton School fete where Di sells out of Brownies’ prizes and return home to save the bedding plants with some watering. Afterwards to watch England draw 0-0 with Holland in the World Cup and find that that the new gardener/handyman had accepted the job
Today was really warm and ideal for the events that were planned. It started for us quite early as Di had to take Daniel into ATS, in St Neots, to get his car's front tyres checked and wheels balanced before we dropped Debbie off to her horse-riding. We then went on with Della and Daniel to the Kimbolton sports day. It is always a fairly low-key affair with only the parents of participants attending but we went there to support the school and to meet Nigel and Lynne Smith. My Godson, Ashley Smith, was running and he did quite well by at least trying hard to come 4th in the 220m as his best attempt.
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Feeling more rested after a good night sleep, as the weather got brighter and warmer, I continued my inside and outside chores. An applicant for the gardener/handyman job called after lunch and I decided to take him on. The Poll Tax appeal was dismissed in the High Court and now the councils will go to higher courts of appeal. And the RPI rose to nearly 10% which was badly received by the markets.
The weather gets brighter and warmer every day and this morning was still and warm making it very pleasant to go out. I was feeling a bit more rested and relaxed after a good night's sleep and was able to work more productively. I tended my doves, fish and plants and then settled down to my journal, financial transactions and correspondence which took until lunchtime. After lunch we had a breakthrough as Mark Bowles (a young man from Beeson Close) came round to drop in an application form for the gardener/handyman job. I chatted to him for a while and he seemed to have the necessary skills and enthusiasm, even if he lacks the experience.
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