Starting the day tired, I saw the girls off to school and then pottered around the conservatory until I accepted a number of interviews concerning Derek’s court appearance as I also countersigned Nigel’s shotgun license application ahead of our Scottish trip! After celebrating the eve of Di’s birthday with a Croxton Happy Eater tea (!) I chaired a LibDem HDC group meeting in the evening as Derek’s antics featured on the news.
Tired again this morning after a second very tiring day and I only managed to get down to breakfast after the girls were fed and getting ready to leave for school. They make such a fuss when they go and even had Diana giving them a lift to the bus stop in view of the wind and rain that came this morning. I was doddering around in the conservatory after breakfast when the gardener arrived, and we reviewed all of the plants in there. A bunch of bananas is coming on the banana plant, which is a rare event, but there is lots of work to do there when the gardener gets time. After chatting to him about other priorities as well, I went back to my office and took several telephone calls from journalists and colleagues alike about Derek's court appearance and then had Nigel Smith round with a "Shotgun Licence Application" for our forthcoming shooting trip to Scotland.
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The irony of me applying for a shotgun licence on the day after Derek's conviction (with the Gypsies still in Little Paxton) will not be lost on the local police who must think I will be taking over the leadership of hostilities! A nice slimming lunch and then the early afternoon on my last few days' journal. I have lost a little more weight again and have got it back down under 14 stone. I will aim for 13st 7lbs at which I will be quite fit. I then tackled a range of important correspondence this afternoon before preparing for my meeting this evening. I took Diana and the girls out for a celebratory birthday tea at the Croxton Happy Eater as I was not going to be there for that actual birthday tea tomorrow. We got me four passport-style photographs from the Cross Keys shopping centre on the way so that I could file my shot-gun licence application at the police station without further delay.
As I returned home after all this, I found Derek Giles waiting in his car outside the Hayling View for I had promised him that I would create a computer-type-set letter heading for START (The "St. Neots Alpine Rescue team") which is going to be some sort of local fund-raising charity. I had to drive him round to Nigel's house to get one of my photos countersigned and therefore only just managed to get to the meeting on time. It was the group LibDem meeting for the HDC of which I am the leader and I was disappointed to find out that Michael was not coming as we have not managed to have the complete team there since it was expanded in May.
A long and exhausting meeting as I was the only one that had properly prepared for it and so it was after 10.00pm before we finished but at least we got it done. Home to find several more telephone calls waiting as the Giles Gypsy Affair is now headline news in the local papers with a breakfast radio programme planned for his interview in the morning. Stayed up very late watching World Cup qualifying football and wished I hadn't as all of the U.K. national teams did rather badly.