A busy month of preparations for the forthcoming Election and our family holiday in California as the weather turned quite mild again with the daffodils flowering. My schedule of public service meetings continued unabated; with all this leaving little time for my social, Norfolk and boating activities and also Freda’s health was a cause for concern.
The start of our holiday in San Francisco brought back the memories of all our past Californian pleasures with Daniel taking his girlfriend Angela with him for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. John Major’s UK Government under was siege over the Poll Tax, whose days were numbered, as he fought anti-European sentiments to keep Britain at the heart of the EU but, together with the US, combined efforts to negotiate arms reductions with the Soviets and contain or depose Saddam Hussein were struggling.
March was a very busy month with many demands upon my time, but a very good and productive one. For the most part, it was spent trying to clear up my financial affairs and then to initiate the election campaigns before the start of our Californian holidays and all this, when combined with other normal activities, proved to be quite a strain. The weather was quite mild again in mid-month and the presence of so many large and fine daffodils confirmed the imminent arrival of Spring before a following started fine but clouded over later and tried to rain to bring us back to earth, but soon we would be in the warmth of California.
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My organisation for the LibDem publicity and election was going well but took lots of time and effort. Preparing the Hayling View floors for the carpet fitters and settling in our new gardener were further demands. As well as my party and council meetings, and chairing a LibDem constituency campaign meeting, there was also my work encouraging the Village Hall committee and leading the St Neots Museum Committee. Then there was my History Society talks and media interviews. I was given an unsettled night ruing the forthcoming closure of St Neots Post Office, as there was nothing more that I could do, but we did find time for a meal with Nigel and Lynne at "The Racehorse" in Catworth. Some time for my pressing paperwork and the reward of watching England beat France to win the Rugby Grand Slam. Daniel had a house full of friends watching the TV Pop Video channel. I had big worries about Freda who is laid low with a leg problem - the return of her ulcerations. I just had to hope that she would be all right as her business and future depends so much on her health. The factor that had to give in the end was my Norfolk property and boat. I did organise the work on the Paxton Princess, and collected Daniel from the UEA and brought him back to Horning but I had no word on the estimates for re-building Heronshaw and the Auto-pilot was installed on the boat in my absence, depriving me of any proving trials and training.
The trip to the US was very tiring and disruptive to my affairs but worth it for the family enjoyment. It was really the only type of holiday that could effectively keep the children together in mutual enjoyment. Daniel's girlfriend, Angela Brickwood, must have found it to be an experience of a lifetime. I had withdrawn £4,000 in cash and then exchanged half of it for dollars and then got up early for two hours of careful packing, then breakfast en route before embarking on a Jumbo 747 for the flight to San Francisco for the start of our US Trip booking into the Travelodge Hotel Fisherman’s Wharf where we settled in to interconnecting rooms and I walked off to get a shrimp salad. During our few days in northern California, we did all of our normal favourite things and visited our best venues and then hired a car for the scenic drive south along the twisty roads, up and down mountains to stay overnight well on the way to Los Angeles.
Elsewhere, UK PM John Major made a flying visit to Kuwait City now that the Crown Prince was back in occupation with the skyline masked by a great pall of smoke from the fired oil wells and he made an important speech in Germany where he said that Britain should be at the heart of Europe in direct contrast to the former Thatcherite beliefs. The Tories had lost The Ribble Valley to the LibDems by a large margin which buried the Poll Tax for good as the Tory government were being pressed for an early decision. Large holiday company International Leisure together with its airline (the largest private one), went into Administration and another travel firm went bust and ABTA’s guarantee fund was stretched. There was just Red Nose day, when £10m was raised for charity, to relieve the gloom but it too highlighted the governments’ lack of aid for charities.
The US were struggling with their Soviet arms negotiations and were active in Iraq trying to depose Saddam Hussein over his use of Helicopters to put down unrest but the UN has lifted the food embargo on Iraq.