A busy day visiting Freda and Alf amidst deteriorating shop financial figures and then collecting Mum for a visit to collect some flowers and lay them on Dad’s grave in Little Paxton before getting her safely home to Stanton.
The evening attending an HDC Computer Development working party and then Finance and General Purposes Committee noting the council problems growing in that respect.
I ended up very busy today as I decided to call Mum and ask her to get ready for a visit to Dad's grave in Little Paxton. It was another foggy start to the day and so I thought, like yesterday, that the sun and warmth would follow. With rain and wind forecast for the rest of the week and the days shortening, it was time that I got Mum over to see Dad's gravestone for the first time. I was also awake much of the night worrying about the prospect of Mum moving in with Freda and Alf and the state of the retail business for which no profit figures, stock turnover or cash flow information was available.
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I left it until 9.30am before calling Mum as I knew she took some getting going in the morning and, once she had been roused, she was very pleased to get the opportunity. I then telephoned Freda and asked to come over and see her before Mum and then quickly left the house to get there as soon as I could. The journey went quite well and I was in Redgrave at about 11.00am and stopped to make some notes before pulling up at Redgrave Village Stores and being greeted by Alf. He had been preparing the groundwork for the extension for Mum and had just finished painting the door-frames and windows of the kitchen. He joined me and Freda and we discussed things. Her health remained a source of worry and she was due to see the doctor's again that day about her leg. Drugs which the Doctor give her to dry up the ulceration make it more painful which is a pity, but they continue to experiment.
We had a frank discussion that covered the viability of the business and their knowledge and experience to run it successfully and also recognised that the size of my £120,000 loan could not be serviced by profits from it. Alf was still very pessimistic about the chances of ever making a profit in real terms, having been against the idea all along, and I was dubious and felt that the whole thing should be reassessed before alterations were completed for Mum to move in with her bungalow being sold. There was some doubt over the exact costs of the alterations and we were running out of time and so we had to break off without reaching any particular conclusions and agreed to meet again on Thursday afternoon to discuss things further.
Then on to collect Mum for the journey to Little Paxton. I got out her car and left my Range Rover there so that she could travel in her favourite way. Time was short and so I had to push on a bit but she did not complain and we chatted about things as we went. We stopped off at the Cambridge Street, St Neots, florists and the assistant came over to the car window and showed Mum some varieties of flowers so that she could choose a good selection for £20 to put on the grave. Then we went to The Hayling View where Diana had a quick snack lunch prepared for us as I had warned her of our arrival by use of the car phone. We had little time here as we were soon on our way up to the cemetery, with Diana going ahead in her car to help us and save time.
Di removed the old flowers and I got Mum out onto her folding wheelchair and wheeled her over to Dad's grave where Mum cut the flower stalks and Diana fitted them into the two flower vases with Mum directing operations. Di and I left her to have a few minutes next to the grave alone for thought and "to speak to Fred" and then we collected her up and I set of to drive her back home. We had just about enough time to avoid an indecent rush but not so much that she had time to dwell on things and get too emotional. I took some photographs of the grave, the flowers and with Mum in attendance so that she can look at them often for comfort and reassurance. The journey back to Stanton went without hitch and was quicker than I feared which left me time to first fill up Mum's car with petrol. Then to unload Mum and her things, swap cars and get on the road back so as to speed back past Cambridge before the traffic built up.
I was home in time to eat a "garlic chicken casserole" that Debbie had cooked at school although I took it easy on the garlic sauce as I had two council meetings this evening! I was quickly shaved and away to the first which was the Computer Development Working Party starting at 6.15pm. I needed to speak with Michael before the main Finance & General Purposes Committee starting at 7.00pm and so telephoned him ahead and arranged to meet him in a corner of the council chamber to get our story straight for the meeting ahead. We had both read and understood parts of the copious committee papers and so were able to give a good account between us.
Decisions with respect to the budget priorities for next year were delayed until January when the council's financial circumstances would be better known. The council's finances are deteriorating with mounting bad and irrecoverable debts due to the recession on top of overspending on many areas of activity. All this plus the million pounds at risk on a dodgy investment and tough government spending guideline's mean stormy weather ahead. I chatted further to Michael afterwards and exchanged news and views and then got home by 9.30pm, in time to make some more telephone calls before turning in.