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After a slower start, reading my boating books, Freda treated us all to a nice breakfast and then Chris helped me to clean off the Paxton Princess. Then over to a very productive RHDRA meeting next door where we agreed road and dyke priorities before an afternoon scarping and varnishing the boat’s rubbing strake on a mild day with some sunny intervals but not so many that it became too hot for working. As I started to mow the lawns, the entire Bloom family dropped by in their Draco and came back to take me by boat to dinner and dropped me back in the pitch black.
I had a little lay in reading my boating books and expected the Butterfields to be equally slow to rise but I had reckoned without Chris sleeping in the lounge and having to get up early! Freda treated us all to a nice breakfast and then Chris helped me to clean off the Paxton Princess after which it looked much more the part. The birds are so active with plentiful food to eat and young to feed that they leave a right mess under their riverside flight paths. I went over to the Ropes Hill Dyke Residents' Association meeting next door and it was both very well attended and decisive in its resolve.
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Up early for the Marine Power engineer who soon had the Paxton Princess coupling installed and connected and then the builder David Collier arrived to examine Heronshaw and quote for jacking up and restoring it. I then took Freda and Chris to Norwich to visit the two specialist trophy suppliers to choose Dad’s memorial trophy and then collected Freda's younger daughter Stacey and her grand-daughter, Sharne, off the 4.20pm train and drove then around Wroxham and Horning to show Stacey the area and shops.
I then took the whole party (apart from Alf who will hardly go anywhere) for an hour's cruise up the river to see Horning from its best vantage. My cough has developed further into quite a bad cold, but I stayed in the boat and sorted out my Heronshaw and Paxton Princess files and phoned home to find Daniel all right but Debbie still suffering.
I was up early at 6.30am to be ready for the Marine Power engineer. The only things that I had in the boat for breakfast were apple juice and cake, but they sufficed. In the end he did not arrive too early but came at 8.00am and stayed until 10.00am whilst I helped him to fit the coupling. Funny thing was that the reason he had so much trouble getting the old coupling out was that he had overlooked a shaft bearing and had not loosened it off to release the shaft! We were just having a coffee in celebration of a satisfactory repair when builder David Collier arrived and began to look around Heronshaw. He stayed a while and said that he would be able to quote for jacking it up and restoring it but it would take him a week or two to work out his figures which I did not mind. I had a meat and salad sandwich lunch with Freda and then cleaned the boat properly, vacuuming it out and wiping oily marks off of here, there and everywhere.
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The start of my stay at Heronshaw on the Paxton Princess, being welcomed warmly by the Butterfields, but with my cough and cold getting worse. I was getting a legal opinion on dyke maintenance, doing some repairs, collecting my boarding plank from the grumpy Mr Taylor and hosting the first part of the engine/gearbox coupling by the Marine Power engineer.
PLO leader Yasser Arafat calls for the presence of a UN force as trouble continues on the West Bank, Soviet Prime Minister Mr Ryzhkov pleads with Deputies to approve a swingeing bread price after £3bn had been spent on importing an additional 27m tonnes of grain and Thatcher called for urgent international action to fight the "greenhouse" effect but she will not agree the necessary domestic measures
I had morning tea early and then got myself ready for my trip to Norfolk by packing bags and loading up the Range Rover. Then breakfast with the kids to whom I said my goodbyes before setting off. I made a few phone calls on the journey to my political colleagues to let them know what I was doing and to chase them for action on a few items. I arrived at Wroxham at 10.00am which was very good. The new brake pads on the car were squeaking and that will be an action item for my return. I took the Heronshaw Deeds in to my solicitor so that she could provide me with a legal opinion on the road and dyke maintenance for later in the day and then had morning coffee at the Riverside Restaurant and read the day's edition of the Eastern Daily Express, which I found very good as usual. Each day seems to bring a new story of the region being threatened by "Global Warming" and rising sea levels. Off to "Quiet Waters" in Horning to get my gang plank from Mr Taylor who delivered it up grumpily and without social niceties. He is upset with me for my letter and over the sale because of the extra costs of repairing the generator which have fallen on him; but even so he is a most unpleasant individual who is not easily satisfied by anyone with whom he has a relationship.
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Despite still suffering from my bad cough and chest, I managed more Gardening, and meeting Peter Thornhill Esq of Diddington Estate after the narrow vote in favour of his gravel plans. I declined lunch and resumed gardening until collecting my Range Rover from Sawtry after a major service.
After the DTI blunders the future of Ridley is under distinct threat, England Football Manager, Bobby Robson, has been forced to announce his retirement the tabloid press unearthed details of a love affair and today the armada of Dunkirk little ships retraced their voyage of fifty years ago.
I was not feeling very well today, and my bad cough and chest was getting me down. All the family were suffering from the problem and Diana telephoned the Doctor to bring Debbie's Tuesday appointment forward to this afternoon. She was given an asthma spray which seemed to help her to breathe more easily. I got washed and dressed this morning and was the last one to get to the breakfast table. Daniel took Debbie off to school and she was told that she could not go horse-riding tonight. I then got down to planting out certain of my bedding plants. I was not keen in view of my chest, but it had to be done. I started by putting out the hanging baskets. Next were some bedding Geraniums which I clustered together in places that could be easily seen and then some Asters which I put in a long row by the Hayling Footpath, watering them in well as the weather is so dry. I came into my office with Di for some morning coffee and then made a host of telephone calls to try to chase people up. It seems that you can never rely upon anyone to do what they say they are going to do, and they must be chased all the while.
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