A busy and eventful and very cold month with IRA disruption to the railway network during the Climax to the Gulf War. Personally, working on Little Paxton Parish and local LibDem priorities, upgrading my computer and Paxton Princess motor cruiser and continuing improvements to The Hayling View as my On-Site training investment fails as Freda health starts to fail and she struggles with her shop finances. Daniel is grounded after his second damaging car accident.
As ever for me, February turned out to be a very eventful month indeed. Both busy and disruptive as it was dominated all the time by events that formed a climax to the Gulf War. As the land offensive approached, the IRA first bombed Downing Street on the 7th and then severely disrupted the railway network for the rest of the month. Main Line stations received both hoax and real bomb threats as this Libyan-backed nationalist group showed its sympathy for the Arab cause. Then the next US ultimatum on the 22nd brought the Soviet peace efforts to an end. The US and UK did not really want Iraq to comply and avoid a land war and Saddam Hussein played right into their hands by not doing so.
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In 100 hours of land attack, Kuwait was re-taken and US tanks and air power destroyed much of the Iraqi Republican Guard and Iraq's offensive military capability and occupied southern Iraq so that the war finished after 100 days. Now they have to "win the peace", but I think that we will see a new anti-western feeling emerging from the Arab peoples for the way we not only defeated Iraq but humiliated them as well. For me, the month was busy in many other respects. It was a month of intense council and political activity. I led the joint effort between the Village Hall Committee and Parish Council to get efforts under way to expand the village hall and provide an enclosed toilet and changing area for playing field sports. Then led our political group at HDC Policy and Full Council meetings and the surrounding publicity before and after them. I also directed my efforts to starting the parliamentary constituency campaign for S.W.Cambs and re-organisation and finally embarked upon the task of producing the latest FOCUS. I enhanced my computer power this month by buying a portable AMSTRAD IBM-compatible micro and the latest electronic charts and software to make it doubly-useful as first a mobile computer and then an electronic navigational planner and plotter. I spent a long period on the boat this month, fitting Paxton Princess with a security alarm and re-organising its electrical wiring. The cold weather snap was a significant event. With temperatures of below -15degC, Heronshaw had frozen up entirely and Steve Bloom and I had to repair six burst pipes and then dry out the floor. No time for the garage this month, but I will get round to it next. Quite a trauma at Heronshaw as the neighbouring marina owner, Mr Lincoln, cuts down all of the screening trees and I clash with him over this and start a council campaign to restore the screen. Back home, I resigned from being a Director and consultant to ON-SITE Training as its trading position and financial affairs looked increasingly hopeless, which event will lose me £30,000. There is no sign of any income from the £120,000 I had lent Freda, as the shop and post office trading position will not allow it and then, to cap it all, she goes into hospital for treatment and investigations to her legs which puts the management of the Post Office in jeopardy anyway. I have to spend more time than usual on my financial affairs, making transactions suitable for avoiding taxes for both myself and my family as we are to be away at the end of the Tax Year but, having worked hard on this, we still book one of the most expensive methods of getting to the USA over Easter! Back home, Diana's ear infection has cleared up but she is still left with a sore throat and hearing deficiency which she will not progress further. The vast majority of our Hall/Utility area house re-organisation is now complete but this had been a great source of disruption and frustration in that it was affecting (upstairs and down) the very heart of the house which made living here difficult. The girls are fine, with Della confirmed for Kimbolton entry and Debbie getting on well at school. Daniel is grounded after his second damaging car accident but I will be ferrying him around and organising his money to allow him to recover. Thus a very busy month and next month does not look any easier. Nice thing this retirement - the busiest days of your life!