A quite fine day but the coldest day of the Autumn so far after frost overnight extending into the morning continued with me having to act with regard to Ian and Margaret James and their On-Site Training disputes and problems whilst also tussling with my house alarm witing problems and pond air conditioning icing up.
A difficult joint meeting of the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee this evening, chaired by me in the continuing absence of Chair Alan Cromack, but a successful one and a drink together in the Anchor pub afterwards.
A mounting row today over the Hazeltine comments that were critical of Thatcher's leadership, at last the EEC has agreed its GATT negotiating position on reducing agricultural subsidies by 30%
I managed to put the worrying call from Ian James out of my mind and got off to bed and to sleep reasonably well last night. Was up at a reasonable time this morning and, after breakfast, I decided to act on the On-Site Training problem. My first call was to John Creswell with whom I compared notes over Ian and Margaret James. Though quietly confident, he has been quite laid back until now and was not a great deal of use as events had come as an equal surprise to him. I agreed a course of action that would mean counselling and encouraging Ian to take over the central organisational role, determining the other necessary organisational roles and ensuring that his wife took one of them and toed the line.
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Easy to say in theory, but difficult for him to achieve in practice but he must, or else Margaret could not continue in business with him. I called his meeting venue in Nottingham and arranged for him to come down to see me after lunch and then spent the rest of the morning working in the house. I did some work on the alarm system and then noticed that the de-humidifier in the conservatory was not working properly and, when I took the front cover off, I was alarmed to see that the cooling coils were a mass of ice (just like a "Foxes Glacier Mint") with the defrosting mechanism not working. I had to try to contact Ebac, the manufacturer, without much success. After lunch, Ian James arrived at about the latest time he said and I received him in my office, listened to what he had to say, and then advised him on what to do. It will be tough but necessary and Margaret may or may not make the transition. He was soon gone, and I returned to work looking at the house alarm wiring. I temporarily repaired the wires where they had fused together (next to the former boiler) and then went around the house doing some wiring tests and found much of the system working properly. There as still much work left to do, but little time to do it just then. Tea and then, this evening, I had to go to a joint meeting of the Parish Council and Village Hall Committee that had actually been arranged at my request to consider what to do at the back of the village hall by way of providing changing and storage facilities. It was a good meeting, but the pity was that Alan Cromack, the Village Hall chairman was not there and did not send his apologies which made three meetings that he had missed. They asked me to chair this meeting, which I did, and it was quite hard work keeping the thing on the rails with Parish Councillors like Joy Standon but at least everybody wanted to contribute and we agreed a plan of action to pursue. After this meeting, I went along to The Anchor pub with some of the others and it was good to see its new renovation and the large number of people there - even though it was Ladies' Darts Night. Home by 10.00pm and, after chatting to Di and a little TV, I was in bed by 11.00pm. News is of the mounting row over the Hazeltine comments that were critical of Thatcher's leadership. At last the EEC has agreed its GATT negotiating position on reducing agricultural subsidies by 30%, but now that must be reconciled with the USA and others which will be even more difficult. The day was quite fine, but the coldest of this autumn so far with frost a while overnight and this morning.