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Spending time sorting out Daniel and then on the garden with the gardener before the furniture company arrived with their designs for my new office, which I accepted and ordered. Then to research the background to Debbie’s dog bite and the dog owner MrGlynn Taylor before meeting him after my Village Hall Committee meeting. He had installed a letter box guard to prevent a similar incident and so I took no further action. Once home, I watched England win with a single goal in the last minu
te of extra time. Next week's Soviet Communist Party conference may be postponed to avoid an acrimonious split, Thatcher shows herself to be an unwilling traveller on the way to EEC union and US President Bush is abandoning an election pledge to avoid new taxes
Up on time this morning on a day that was both warm and showery at the same time. I had not seen the gardener for a while and so had to give him his instructions and a list of jobs to do before I did much else. I tended the fish, doves and plants and then sorted Daniel out as well. He was due to collect his new car today and needed money and guidance to get the change-over completed. Then the representative from the fitted office furniture company arrived and presented the designs that had been produced for the layout of a new office. I was quite impressed and decided to give him the business and so ordered it on the spot. I then made a few telephone calls about my boat, arranging for life-jacket safety lights and a scrambling net for man overboard recovery, booking my next sea trip with the boat insurers and then contacting the coastguard for information on the small boat safety scheme.
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This morning, on another hot day, I worked on the boat; first on the cupboards and drawer catches and then on the VHF extension speaker. I left in early afternoon, and rushed home without calling in at Redgrave, anxious to see Debbie and her hand injury. I arrived to learn that she was being very brave but learning that she had been visibly shaken and kept having crying spells from the shock and pain.
I was not very well prepared for my evening HDC Finance Committee meeting but tried my best and then came home to hear of the IRA bomb attack on the Conservative Carlton Club in St James's, which wrecked the building's interior and seriously-injured four people
This morning, I worked on the rest of cupboards/drawers, and then fitted the VHF extension 'speaker to the bridge. This was not a straightforward job as the bulkhead was thick and difficult to get to and I wanted to switch the signal so that we were not blaring VHF on the inland waterways to the disturbance of others. This all took longer than planned but I accomplished it in the end and then I did several smaller jobs that went well. I replaced the gas cylinders, fitted the dinghy rowlock retainer and installed the new fresh water supply accumulator. It was very hot again today with the temperature soaring to the 80's as southerly breezes brought the air-stream up from the continent.
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Up early on a hot day and tackled the need to clean the boat before I could do any varnishing before eating a fish and chips lunch in Wroxham whilst getting more materials. A worrying call home to find Della alone as Di had taken Debbie to hospital with a dog bite experienced when delivering my FOCUS newsletters!
The last couple of days has seen Iran having a series of after-shock earthquakes and the fatalities may now be over 50,000. Thatcher is out of accord with the rest of Europe again on the eve of a two-day EEC summit; this time on the subject of aid to the Soviet Union. The CBI say that industry's order books are at the lowest level for 8 years.
I got up quite early and had soon eaten breakfast and was ready to start work at 8.00am. It was a cool start to a hot day and I decided to clean off the boat which had become quite dirty and unfit to varnish. This took two strenuous hours in the end and I was pleased to rest in the shade on the Heronshaw balcony afterwards. Jack stopped by and I settled up with him and chatted about the future of Heronshaw. I then varnished the blocks on the top of the Paxton Princess before resuming work on the cupboards and drawers. Even then, I needed to go into Wroxham again to get more materials before the chandlers closed. Had a nice Plaice and Chips lunch from my favourite "chippie" but the geese and starlings had the majority of the chips! I worked much of the evening on the drawers and gradually did them one by one as there are so many.
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Off to Norfolk, and the Paxton Princess via Redgrave to see Mum and Freda’s family had settled in and installed Mum’s new video and tape of Dad. Then on to Wroxham to see Steve Bloom at the Wroxham Marina to help him with their new boat before driving on to unlock Heronshaw and the boat and unload my things. The rest of the day securing the boat’s cupboards and catches and planning a boat trip to the Wash in two weeks’ time when the tides seem favourable
I made a game attempt to get up and out early but, as always, I was a bit delayed. I drove to Redgrave Village Stores to find the Butterfields in occupation and Mum as the guest of honour. They seemed settled in and so I bought my weekend's groceries there and had a chat. They have changed the shop round a bit and seem to be enjoying the enterprise. I had brought the video recorder and tape of Dad to give to her and I set it up there and then in the bed-sitting room for her to see and she was very taken with it. Before long, I had to leave, and I drive on to Wroxham to see Steve Bloom at the Wroxham Marina.
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