News of the continuing battle of Al Khafgi, where some 5000 Iraqis and around 50 tanks took the Allies by surprise and occupied it with many US Marine casualties
News of the continuing battle of Al Khafgi, where some 5000 Iraqis and around 50 tanks took the Allies by surprise and occupied it with many US Marine casualties

As the weather continued cold, chilly and quite dull, I worked sweeping leaves later but first accompanied Diana to the doctor to have her ears, nose and throat examined after constant infections and she will have a hearing test next week. Also some shopping for stationery and fishing tackle and a hair cut.

I cheered her up with a modest Little Chef meal as we are resuming diets ahead of our planned Summer US visit. A good LibDem meeting this evening to plan our forthcoming local elections.

News of the continuing battle of Al Khafgi, where some 5000 Iraqis and around 50 tanks took the Allies by surprise and occupied it

I was up quite early this morning for once having got to bed quite reasonably. Read the newspapers whilst waiting for the others to come for breakfast. The girls gone, I did a few chores at my desk and then got ready to go out with Diana. She had an appointment with the Doctor and wanted me to be there. We did the chores on the way out and then set the alarm again. It is performing very reliably now that I have worked on it, without a single false alarm so far. We had a little time to start shopping before the appointment and so went our individual ways and met up at the surgery.

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Diana had her ear examined and a hearing test ("audiometry") was arranged for early next week. We are concerned firstly about her history of ear, nose and throat infections and then how her ears are going to react to the decompression of a transatlantic air flight. I must say that I am not very impressed with the local doctors and hope that the matter will be taken seriously. On with our shopping. I bought myself some Pike floats & lures as well as a fishing licence; some new pencil leads some postage stamps; had a haircut; and then did as whole host of other chores that I had meant to do before from a long list.

Diana was a bit cold and tired and so I took her to the Little Chef for a meal. We both ate responsibly as we are back on a diet and Diana is going to the Weight Watchers club again to get slim for America. It was then Diana's afternoon to help at the village school and so I worked on the front garden whilst listening to my portable radio. I swept together and removed all of the remaining leaves from the lawn and flower beds which was a nice active job for a cold day.

The news on the radio was of the continuing battle of Al Khafgi, where some 5000 Iraqis and around 50 tanks took the Allies by surprise and occupied this border town and then continued to hold the territory despite counter attacks by Saudi troops with US air cover and artillery support. The Allies are embarrassed as the difficulty in flushing the Iraqi out is a foretaste of the forthcoming problem in taking Kuwait. Twelve US Marines are reported dead and the reality of casualties comes home to America as they wait to hear the names of those lost, hoping that their own sons are all right.

This evening, I went to the local Liberal Democrat branch meeting which was reasonably attended and quite productive in terms of planning our next campaign for the May elections for District and Town council elections. The weather continues cold and chilly and quite dull.