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Collecting our renovated Rolls Royce on another fine and sunny day and shopping at a garden centre en route. P & A Wood in Essex have been given the honour or restoring the original Silver Ghost that underwent the reliability trials that first won the car manufacturer's reputation for reliability. Home to some essential gardening and then to rush off to a meeting of the Little Paxton Village Hall Committee where the officers were re-elected, and I remain the Vice-Chairman and a Trustee.
The US commission that investigated the Lockerbie bomb attack have suggested action viewed as extreme and impracticable. The British Ministry of Defence has frozen procurement for six-months whilst emergency cuts of £350m are identified. British beef is being withdrawn from more and more schools who are not convinced by the government's assurances about BSE-infected cows and the Baltic States experienced their worst violence since the independence declarations
Another fine and sunny day, but we had a commitment to collect the Rolls Royce today from P & A Wood in Essex. I first tended the conservatory etc., had some time to spend on my Logbook and then, once Di had taken Della to school, we set off in the Range Rover. I chose the back route through Cambridge so that we could visit the large garden centre there. We started with coffee and then looked round at tools and weed-killers before ending up in the indoor plant greenhouse. I bought a nice-smelling Camelia for the conservatory, a range of weed-killers that the lawns need through neglect and then a bag of compost and a "Grow-bag" for my melons.
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I was awake early and tending the fish and plants in the conservatory before getting out to resume work on the lawns; finding all the gardening equipment left in poor condition as Pete’s legacy. After some work inside on my Logbook, fielding visitors and interruptions, I shopped for upright and horizontal edging shears and some levered pruning shears at Arthur Ibbett’s in Great Paxton and ordered some new parts for the strimmer.
An IRA bombing attack today on the Army education centre in south-east London, public concerns about "Mad Cow" disease have led to more consuming organisations and countries ban British beef, the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Baltic States has deepened. A total of 1,125 job losses from a Welsh steel plant that is dependent on the motor trade and receivers have been called in at a big 210,000 sq ft Docklands office development; "South Quay Plaza", due to the depressed commercial property market in the area.
I was awake early with much to do this morning but started the day by tending the conservatory and the fish and plants. Then out to the lawns again, trying to do the edging but finding the edging shears in a hopeless state of maintenance. It was the same story with the lawnmower yesterday. Pete was a good chap but hopeless about cleaning or maintaining the equipment. I got the smaller Mountfield lawn mower going for the first time in ages and took it down by the river where I cut down the vegetation there. Next was the strimmer which I also found to need attention. I cleaned it off and noted that the hub was broken, and cap worn and that was my signal to break off my endeavours for lunch. For my inside job, I started to go over my Logbook in black ink, replacing the pencil entries that had become blurred in the voyage and afterwards.
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A slow start after a sound night’s sleep, tending to my log book and stowing equipment aboard The Paxton Princess ready to leave her unattended for a while. Leaving Heronshaw after lunch and a chat with Freda, I tussled with a swarm of motor-cyclists in Norwich and then arrived with Mum at Stanton for an afternoon visit and settled her before driving home to find the children missing me and wanting things. Mowing the lawns this evening in Peter’s absence.
Thatcher at last being persuaded by her colleagues to drop her veto of full entry by Britain into the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System, Gorbachev is setting up a 4bn Roubles plan to redeploy up to two million redundant workers due to be shed by the bankrupt and reformed state industries and the Iraqi "Supergun" row continues as Italian police seize over 90 tonnes of steel components
Another sound sleep after a late night and this time I was not the only one to be later up in the morning. Freda and Alf had stayed in and I was the first to stir. I added to my Log Book entries for the voyage and did a few things before they were ready. There was then quite a big job removing all the ropes, fenders etc and stowing them in the boat-house for safekeeping. It was mid-day before I had de-commissioned the boat and left it ready for being unattended for a while and so Freda offered me lunch before I left and we had another good chance for a chat about old times which I hope was a comfort and a re-assurance for her rather than bringing back too many unhappy memories. I also saw Jack, my caretaker, this morning, and we chatted for a while. He told the story of another boat-owner from Ropes Hill Dyke who had gone to Blakeney and gone aground and, being a single-keeled boat with screws out each side, it had taken quite a bit of damage to one of the shafts and the owner had pledged never to return there again.
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Recovering from my sea trip joining Freda and Alf for breakfast of bacon and tomato in Heronshaw again, catching up with Mum’s wheelchair problems and organising a swimming pool repair in Paxton. Tom Phillips arranged for a local firm to come and repair my coupling on The Paxton Princess as I undertook a range of repairs.
I slept well after the strains and exertions of the last few days and was a bit slow to get up this morning. In the end, I dressed and joined Freda and Alf for breakfast of bacon and tomato again. They have been doing fine these last few days and have received contracts and further information on the purchase of Redgrave Stores. The regional representative of the wholesalers visited them at Heronshaw and signed them up after briefing them on the service that they offered and so everything seems to be going ahead as planned. The news of Mum was not quite as good but at least Freda and Alf had managed to visit whilst I was away. She has had further trouble with her electric wheelchair as a circlip came off the wheel and was lost and she has also got a fixation about the possibility that somebody has stolen the pump from the fishpond. I found Tom Phillip's lifejacket left in the boat and so I telephoned Diana anyway and asked her to let him know. I had to use the radio/telephone as the cell net reception was too bad again.
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