This month ended with intense drama as Della was run over by a car as she left the school bus in Gordon Road. In many ways it was the most shocking and dreadful thing ever to have happened to any of us and, on the other hand, we could count ourselves the luckiest people in the world for her to have escaped so lightly. The head injury was the worry but fortunately tests revealed no concussion or even pelvic damage as her thigh was shattered.
This during an autumnal month of rain, wind and cold but the garden and conservatory demanded attention also as did my ongoing financial planning, writing, and publication. We had social opportunities with friends, trips to the cinema and celebrated Di’s birthday and joined her for regular Cambridge family visits and I was also watching the World Cup Rugby Union finals.
There was poor news from Freda and Alf, being unable to provide shop performance figures and Mum was getting depressed over their lack of progress with her flat at Redgrave but I took her to collect some flowers and lay them on Dad’s grave in Little Paxton. In my trips to Norfolk, I attended the council panning meeting where they turned down my plans for redeveloping Heronshaw against officer advice but we had our last boating holiday later cruising all over the Broads.
There was much time spent enjoying Norwich and seeing Daniel’s new university pad. Steve Bloom joined me for work there. I would up my On-Site Training investment and folded the company and helped Derek Giles get over his Gypsy persecution aftermath. I was busy organising the local LibDems and other local institutions such as Little Paxton Parish and St Neots Town Councils, Hunts District Council and still opening fetes and jumble sales for good local causes including the Village Hall.
The regular publication of Focus and development of the local political organisation was still a priority and the formation of a LibDem printing company, Glisson Printers Ltd, an achievement as Company Secretary. The Tories were struggling post-Thatcher and behind in opinion polls. The new democracy of Tahiti did not last long but the Soviets were still agreeing arms cuts with the USA and hostage exchanges were being achieved between Arabs and Israelis
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What a way for the month of October to come to an end and with what drama as Della was run over as she left the school bus in Gordon Road; In many ways it was the most shocking and dreadful thing ever to have happened to any of us and, on the other hand, we could count ourselves the luckiest people in the world to have escaped so lightly. I had been soon on the scene organising things after Debbie ran home screaming. Insisting that Di called 999 for help, I supervised the situation and got things organised for Della’s trip to hospital with a broken thigh. With Di and Debbie hysterical, I took them with me behind the ambulance and then brought Debbie home to rest.
The head injury was the worry but fortunately tests revealed no concussion or pelvic damage as we had a calmer end to the day. Della was all right and in traction with a plasma drip, intravenous pain killers and blood thinners with 15min blood tests and I took care to send a note with Debbie to school the following day updating them as the school bus children had witnessed the scene. We also got a folder of get-well cards from Little Paxton schoolchildren, and I took Debbie with me to see Della and Diana later at the hospital to keep everyone calm. The month had gone fairly well until our mishap. Della had been troublesome and caused problems when she was both on the way and on the way back from school but had grown beyond this by then.
The true Autumn weather arrived, it was generally a cold and breezy month with many unpleasant days outside when the heavens opened with a series of squalls. and, even when the wind dropped, there was sometimes steady drizzle to cope with. I was trying to tackle gardening priorities and was still treating greenfly in the conservatory hoping it would not injure my koi carp which I was monitoring closely, and the gardener had managed to spread quite a lot of the compost around the beds. Most of the following day spent reorganising the large Hayling View compost heap, removing all of the large twigs and fibrous waste so as to allow the rest to compost down better. I also had a mammoth task to clear my desk after recent work and spent most of the evening in my office writing up these last four days' journal and starting to tackle some financial work that has been outstanding.
I had a break from my diet as we went with Nigel and Lynne Smith for a meal out as I also countersigned Nigel’s shotgun license application ahead of our Scottish trip! This was the first climax to a day spent getting the Range Rover serviced, buying Debbie’s calculator, and hunting for plants and then the second followed with Diana! Both daughters enjoyed the Kimbolton School ‘own clothes day’. I saw Dr Thomas about my painful foot and he referred me for treatment. I watched the Scotland vs Japan World Cup Rugby match on TV and then the English team win a closely fought World Cup Rugby Union quarter final against France at The Parc de Prince. I took Di to The Cromwell Cinema in Huntingdon to watch "Dances with Wolves", continued our weekly rendezvous with Di’s parents in Cambridge, with the family lunch at The Copper Kettle and catching up with the last two week's episodes of the "House of Elliott" twenties series. Then celebrating the eve of Di’s birthday with a Croxton Happy Eater tea (!)
Freda had still not provided me with any figures for her business and I had a worrying and busy day visiting Freda and Alf amidst deteriorating shop finances but I found a book for Freda on running a shop. I collected 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. I had seen Mum earlier in the month and she seemed to be managing all right and was in quite good spirits and the visit, though brief, was satisfactory in every way but then, by the end of it, I found her down and depressed at Freda and Alf’s lack of progress at Redgrave
On my first short trip to Norfolk, I spent the day spent at the Broadland Planning Meeting only to see my application turned down recommending refusal against the planning officer's advice. Later I spent time pouring over the plans to redevelop Heronshaw and in the Local Studies Department at Norwich Library reading up on the structure of the Broads Authority. Later, we had our last boating trip of the season and a nice relaxing time visiting the broad's towns of Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Norwich. This was a half-term holiday cruise on The Paxton Princess which started by us leaving Heronshaw and making our way downstream to Great Yarmouth, where we moored at the Town Hall Quay. There we spent time at Wally’s Windmill and the 10-pin bowling before snuggling up on board to sleep. Then we went through the 10.30am Haven bridge lift, across Breydon Water and up the River Yare to Norwich where we met up with Daniel and Isabel. Dan took us in his car for an evening meal and to view his new pad at 23 Cedar Road.
We started our stay in Norwich by having a splendid day out, making Di’s contact lens appointment and enjoying coffee at Oliver’s before enjoying time on our own. We were then off to the Aquapark for some family water fun and then the evening cinema in The Odeon, Anglia Square. Whilst spending time in Norwich we enjoyed coffee at Jarrold’s and lunch at Oliver’s and then, finally saying goodbye to the friendly harbourmaster, we made our trip to downstream via Brundall to Reedham where we moored at the ferry where I researched boat electrics with the books I had bought in Norwich. There followed a boat trip from Reedham to Oulton Broad on a fine but chilly day after mopping down the boat and watching Reedham Ferry operate to and fro. We had to endure waits of 15-20mins at Reedham and Somerleyton swing bridges before proceeding along the Waveney to Oulton Broad yacht station. Lunch at The Ice Cream Parlour there and the afternoon by bus to Lowestoft shopping and looking round before some enjoying time on the sea front and getting back to the boat by taxi. There then followed our cruise on Paxton Princess from Oulton Broad, along Oulton Dyke and The Waveney and through Somerleyton and St Olaves Bridges to Breydon Water. Across and carefully under the Bure Bridges to moor up at The Yarmouth Yacht Station for a free stay at there at the end of their season before making the final cruise up the Bure back to Horning where we emptied the boat at the end of the season.
During other trips to Norfolk, I went to the boat auction at Potter Heigham with Steve Bloom where I just bought two hydraulic jacks and took the Wroxham Bridge Restaurant in thanks for his help in checking a few things on Paxton Princess and ensuring that it was up to the task of accommodating the family for our holiday and was not leaking in the rain. Later, saw the flat that Daniel had selected for his second year at the University of East Anglia and met our new neighbours and took Steve. During other trips with the family, we visited Wroxham Barns café for a warm drink and snacks, did some shopping and took the girls to the Horning Leisure Centre where we first went swimming and then sat and had our afternoon tea. During these evenings, we could watch TV and I had time to update my journal. I also watched a very exciting semi-final of the Rugby World Cup in which England beat Scotland by nine points to six in a closely fought contest and then more tv drama.
The month had also seen the winding-up of On-Site Training with its last shareholders meeting and also the final act in the Derek Giles Gypsy Saga with his conviction on a minor charge of harassment. Derek and I dealt with the outcome of the court case with our press statement and I had to field the subsequent radio and TV interviews with he and I with me putting the best possible gloss on things concerning his court appearance. He had got off lightly and, predictably, this did not do us any reputational harm with the public or police, because of the unpopular antics of the gypsies.
The month had started quietly enough with the Labour and Tory conferences setting the national political scene. The Conservative Party Conference opened in Blackpool as the weekend polls still had them trailing the Labour Party. It was a dull and lack-lustre and discordant Tory Conference opened with a debate on Northern Ireland and it was only the appearance of Margaret Thatcher that livened things up and even then she did not dare speak. A string of St Neots Tory resignations providing the local counterpart. Six of the Town Council Conservatives had resigned over the planned Shortsands Old People's Home closure.
I chaired LibDem HDC group meetings, sat in on the St Neots Town Council Group meeting and enjoyed a good Village Hall meeting one evening with the new Chairman taking the reins. I was also attending the constituency planning meetings as well as those of the District Council for which I had an interview with a radio station on our alternative budget proposals, and was also attending significant planning and parish meetings concerning Little Paxton development. I attended an HDC Planning Committee where I left the Chairman with the impression that I would hope that they would resist the late application for road widening and out-of-town retail units in Paxton. An evening attending an HDC Computer Development working party and then Finance and General Purposes Committee noting the council problems growing in that respect. I agreed to open the Grand Bazaar and Jumble Sale in support of the fund raising for medical treatment of Scott Peacock, a Little Paxton boy which I am pleased to do and there followed some campaigning publicity on behalf of Scott. I also attended a Little Paxton Barn Dance to raise funds for the Village Hall.
I had been getting the first major FOCUS out after the summer with Sally and Michael helped me produce the Priory edition after attending a Hills Road 6th Form College Cambridge for a LibDems software seminar. Some LibDem colleagues joined me at The Hotel Norwich to review re-organising Glisson Printing by use of a new machine, which led to me attending a round of meetings both in my office and then at Glisson Road, Cambridge, where we incorporated Glisson Printers Ltd with me as Company Secretary completing the company registration forms. There followed more with Roman Znajek of Glisson to further our company plans for upgrading our party printing equipment. During all this time, my resignation as constituency organiser for Sue Sutton’s parliamentary campaign was not discussed.
The small island of Tahiti has had a military coup to end the first six months of democracy that it has ever managed. The Soviets have now announced wide-ranging cuts in their tactical and surface-to-air nuclear weapons in response to the ones that the USA recently announced. The news is of the hostage exchange getting underway again between Arabs and the Israeli captives