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The four-yearly Leap Day famed for proposals and coincidentally the birthday of Daniel’s girlfriend Angela. The day was nice after the fog cleared and was sunny and mild so I saw Debbie off to school, took Della into St Neots library and then came home to get the Reliant out and started it with its new number plates. Stayed in this evening for want of baby-sitter and watched a spy-thriller with Diana in which just about everybody got shot!
A day in five years on which the tradition of ladies being able to propose to their boy-friends is still going strong, the media being full of it. I was wondering about Angela who, as Daniel's girlfriend, is 20 years old today - being born on leap day in 1972 and only having a proper birthday every four years! I slept well last night and was up quite early this morning, seeing Debbie off to school. I decided to take Della into St Neots this morning and we took off and had a nice snack at Brackenbury's before I left her at the library whilst I did some errands. It was a nice interlude but quite tiring for me.
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Driving from Paxton to Wroxham where I visited Jeckells to see about a carpet quotation and then other suppliers before having lunch and then casting off on Paxton Princess and cruising back to Heronshaw. Then an unsatisfactory meeting with Arthur Edmunds before a lift back to Wroxham with Jack.
Home to Paxton after visiting Mum in Stanton for the first time in a while and finding her fine. There was an I.R.A. bomb explosion at London Bridge Station this evening with more than twenty hurt and several kept in hospital overnight.
I asked Diana to wake me early to give me a good start to my busy day and I had already loaded the car last night. I still stayed for breakfast with the girls and then set off at around 8.00am for Norfolk. It took just under two hours to get to Wroxham and the traffic and road conditions were not too bad. I first checked out Heronshaw and found it much as I had left it except the bungalow continues to sink steadily and the doors become ever more difficult to open. I was due to collect the boat and take it back down river but first I visited Jeckells to see about a carpet quotation and then MarinePower to try to get installation quotes. I then had lunch at the "Ice Cream" Cafe and checked in at Barnes Brinkcraft.
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A day of important meetings about the Local Plan and aspirations for future Council organisation which started with a site visit and ended at Pathfinder House, where I had plotted a perfect counter to Tory leader Derek Holley’s aspirations for a Huntingdonshire Unitary Authority.
To sleep much later than intended after laying awake bothered over the election planning and then quickly up this morning to see how the England Test Cricket Team were getting on in their match against the favoured West Indies. In fact, we had held them to only 160-odd in their innings and then proceeded to easily knock off these runs in reply, having six wickets and ten overs to spare. The book-makers now have England favourites to win the World Cup but we shall see. I broke off my pleasure, as ever, to go out for a meeting - this one a site inspection in Little Paxton being held by the Local Plan Inspector, being held to decide on the future of Cosy Corner and the plans to expand the village population by nearly 25%.
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As Debbie got uses to her brace, I both made and received calls from political colleagues and others, broke off to watch some televised sport and caught up on the news about HM The Queen’s visit to Australia. The evening on Focus editing and copy.
I was slow up this morning after the efforts of the last couple of days but joined the others at the breakfast table. After not managing it yesterday, Debbie successfully ate her croissant this morning with Diana taking up my suggestion of warming it in the oven and not the microwave to make it flaky rather than chewy. Once they were gone, I shaved, showered and dressed and then made some key telephone calls to political colleagues about the events of yesterday to ensure that they had been sufficiently absorbed. Whilst having an extended coffee break, I watched the Sky Sports television coverage of the Cricket World Cup and saw Australia beaten by the newly-returned South Africa side.
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