A long day, dropping Debbie and her friend off at the stables and then continuing for our Norfolk day-trip, where we restored the mooring lines and electricity supply to the boat and had a fine Sunday lunch at the Bridge Restaurant in Wroxham.
We then drove to University Plain to see Daniel's room and home via Stanton to see Mum and the Cranston’s to collect Debbie.
The UN leader's last-minute peace initiative broke down and the Soviet army has used the cover of the Gulf dispute to move with troops and tanks against one of the Baltic states
Diana called us all early this morning in view of our plans to go to Norfolk for the day. Debbie had managed to arrange to stay with a friend to avoid this activity and still be able to go to her horse-riding and so she was happy. A nice fried breakfast for all of us and we even saw Daniel at a reasonable time as he was returning to UEA and Angela in reverse order of priority. A mad scramble to get together all of the things that we had to take and Daniel won the race to get loaded up and away. He was to meet up with Angela, get into his room and collect the offending book, and then meet us for lunch at Wroxham. We set off later, collected Helen Cranston from Perry, dropped her and Debbie off at the stables, and then set off for Norfolk a bit late.
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I let Diana drive as I had a lot of reading to catch up on. The roads were very icy, and we saw the results of many accidents during the day. Di stopped near the Thetford by-pass to fill up with petrol and for us to have a break and drink and then we continued on our way, eventually arriving at Heronshaw at about 12.30pm. I got the heating on in the bungalow and settled Di and Della down and then Daniel and Angela arrived. My chief task there was to re-connect the electricity supply to the boat, damaged by the storm, and so I put Daniel and Angela aboard. It was the first time she had been on board a boat (except a ferry) and she thought that it was quite nice though had nothing to compare it with. I asked Daniel to start up the engines and heating to give them a run whilst I went to fix the power supply. The gales had led to the Paxton Princess breaking away from its moorings and the tension on the shore-power line had broken a wire which I eventually found and repaired.
The background heating is essential to prevent the water systems from freezing. All this complete, I put both boat and bungalow to bed and took the assembled company off to the Bridge Restaurant in Wroxham for a fine Sunday lunch. I really enjoy the food and service there which is also reasonably priced. There were plenty of customers, even though it was out of the tourist season. We then drove to University Plain to see Daniel's room. Diana was a bit critical of the small size and decoration of both the room and bed, describing it as "like a prison cell" which was a bit indiscreet considering that he had made a serious attempt to decorate it with posters and make it look homely. However, it is confined in space and the walls are bare breezeblock and have yet to be plastered. All this done, we said our farewells, and started the journey back, stopping at Stanton to see my mother. She was very pleased to see Della and Diana but seemed to be a bit tired and drawn after hurting a rib, stretching to unpack her things upon returning from Redgrave. She complains that Freda and Alf seem reluctant to implement the sanitary improvements that are needed there to make stays of longer than two weeks possible.
We resumed the journey in the dark with thick fog adding further dangers to the freezing conditions and it was 7.30pm before we collected Deborah from the Cranston’s. Home later and I could only rest and relax after another tiring day which had ended with me having to have an hour-long telephone call to Sally Guinee to go over her Environmental Services Committee Agenda. The television news was of the breakdown of the UN leader's last-minute initiative and now the very last hope is the EEC mediation which will follow a Franco-British meeting of leaders today. However, it all looks quite hopeless. Meanwhile the Soviet army has used the cover of the Gulf dispute to move with troops and tanks against one of the Baltic states to crack down on dissent and Detente is going into reverse again. The news is not good as we await the 15th January UN deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.