After last night’s successful bid to recruit Angela Bush as our candidate for St Ives South, I was slow to get going but then caught the train to first visit Tottenham Court Road where I failed to find a suitable laptop and then on to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors building in Parliament Square for a Fountain Forestry launch event. The train home after which I took Debbie to the dentist and back for a Little Paxton Parish Council meeting, leaving early to take the family to see a splendid Kimbolton firework display.
I had planned to visit London today and therefore did not have a great deal of time to spend in the house this morning. I was also slow to rise because I was very late to bed last night. We had a successful visit to recruit Angela Bush as a candidate for St Ives South, but the meeting went on late and I sat in front of the TV later still. There had been some interest fever in the City yesterday with rumours of a cut in the rates, but that was soon dispelled today as Germany actually put their interest rates up and UK shares fell in value again. After a bit of a rush, I made my way out and to the station to catch the first train after 9.00am to take advantage of the off-peak "cheap-rate" fares. The railway car-park charges also drop from £1.50 to 10p after 9.00am, but as the first available train is at 9.03am, that does not leave enough time for everyone to park and catch it; which was the source of a few complaints.
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I used the journey to catch up on some reading and other work and then caught a taxi to the Tottenham Court Road to see what special offers the stores there had on "lap-top portable" microcomputers. In fact, they were pretty expensive, and their attitude did not encourage confidence and so I decided not to buy one. I think I shall decide on the best make and then telephone around for the best price rather than traipse around there again. Another taxi to my meeting place in Parliament Square at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors building. I arrived early for my Fountain Forestry lunch and met George McRobbie, Barry Gamble and the local manager, Liz, with whom I had a long chat about the progress of my woodland plantation. The scene is quite different since I last saw it, with the young trees putting on good growth over the last couple of years. It seems that a good way to travel up there is by motor-rail, sleeping on the train and taking the car with us as we go and I will look into this method as we could take more of the family with us.
I took the train back to arrive home in time to take Della to the dentist in Kimbolton, collecting Debbie from school on the way. I had to see him too, because we thought that I had broken a tooth, having found a partial tooth by my plate a couple of weeks ago. In fact, after examining my jaw, the tooth, my record card and then all three again in sequence and looking very troubled; he concluded that it was not my tooth at all but a "baby" of "milk" tooth of Debbie's (though she denies it) that had a previous filling and was not a partial adult tooth at all! Thus ended a very silly episode. She also had to have some other teeth "painted" to protect them from decay and was most put out by the whole thing, firing many persistent questions at the unfortunate Mr Osborne. All home where we had tea and with it, some nice onion soup and croutons that Debbie had prepared at school today and had saved in a thermos flask. Then time for me to write this day's journal before it was time to go briefly to this evening's Little Paxton Parish Council Planning Meeting and then leave early from the main Council meeting to go on to the Kimbolton Firework Display at which I had a minor organisational role as a member of the school society committee.
The weather had been fine today, and this made for a good display, in fact the best ever. Numerous high, loud and colourful fireworks were provided by the Reverend Lancaster as usual and the display incorporated a fighter plane exchanging canon shot with an attack helicopter. Then an elephant outlined in lights with a trunk tossing a golden spray up and down, and finally the closing sequence of even higher, louder and more colourful fireworks to end. I called in on the money count afterwards and the final tally was over £4,500 for takings but the cost of the fireworks and food had to be deducted from that which seems to be the best ever result for the Kimbolton School Association.