Onsite Training had been set up in Grove House Comarts old HQ
Onsite Training had been set up in Grove House Comarts old HQ

Another warm and physically-demanding day raking laws and gathering up debris before managing some lawn mowing before the mower handle broke. I was already tired from my Horning exertions and was hard pressed to work as hard at Paxton.

The Prime Minister's speech to the Tory Conference was a sickening spectacle, script written for effect and stage-managed to an appalling degree. Major’s City honeymoon with the ERM came to an abrupt end as the FT100 index had already fallen back. My photo and Onsite story was in the papers today

Staying on at Heronshaw, then meant that I had less time to get the gardens right at The Hayling View for the family party the following weekend. I spent the morning raking hordes of fallen leaves from the front lawn and also liaising with the decorators to get the painting of the house finished off properly. I also had to return some telephone calls as the Onsite story gets picked up locally. The lawn-raking was quite an onerous job as the good season led to record amounts of fruits and nuts on the trees such as beech nuts, acorns and the Gaul-fly mutations forming oak-apple that are endemic at the moment. Raking all of these things up was very hard work. I carried on after lunch, raking the lawns by the river and then using the besom on the games lawn until it was quite late in the afternoon by the time I was ready to use the lawn mowers. I mowed the games lawn first but it was quite dry and bumpy as the ground was still parched after the dry spring and summer.

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Then, after tea, I mowed the other riverside lawns continuing right up to dark to get them done. I was able to do this as the grass is so dry. Darkness came so early now that by 7.30pm you are forced to come in. I then had a blow to my plans to mow the rest tomorrow as I found the lawn-mower handle to be cracked and split and needing a weld before it could be used further. I was absolutely shattered; being already tired from physical exertion at Heronshaw before even starting the Hayling View gardening. I had to rest for a little while before going to my office and writing up some of my recent journal from notes that I kept whilst in Norfolk.

Today was the Prime Minister's speech to the Tory Conference, which was a sickening spectacle, script written for effect and stage-managed to an appalling degree. This ended a muted Tory party conference and, with it, the party conference season which has been marked by their role as mere rallies rather than decision-making conferences these days. In the City, the FT100 index had already fallen back to its pre-ERM level of 2100 and the honeymoon for Major's decision has already ended. Another very warm day - too warm for working - and Daniel did not come home from university this evening and must have had some better things to do. In this evening's Cambridge Evening News was my photograph and a good supportive story about ONSITE. The PR agency had faxed it through to me.