After the morning visiting Cambridge and Di’s parents, finding Norma quite ill with a cold, we had lunch in the Cambridge Arts Theatre Restaurant and then came home so that I could work on the Focus advertisement copy and consider a quote from Arthur Edmonds for rebuilding Heronshaw. Then to help my St Neots Council colleagues agree strategy and home to find Della and Debbie had both been upset at my absence.
I joined Diana for the trip to Cambridge this morning and we got underway once the girls had been dropped at the bus stop. The bus routine seems to be settling down now with the two new Little Paxton stops made permanent. It was a very foggy day and the cold weather had returned making the air chill and the driving conditions atrocious. We passed several crash-damaged cars as we wended our way along the A45 from St Neots to Cambridge and had to drive much slower than normal. Di had an errand to do on the way and so we approached Cambridge from the north and it was a little later than usual before we parked at the Round Church Car Park and met Di's parents for coffee in Eadon Lilley's.
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Norma seems to have another bad cough and cold and this has been a pattern for over a year now which is worrying. She will be run down and have shingles before long if she is not more careful. Di thinks that it is because she is always looking after her brother's children and catching the many and varied colds that they get. I then went off to undertake some transactions at the post office and building societies and intended to visit Tandy to get some components for my boat, but they had closed down and moved from their previous site and I could not find them anywhere else. Ate lunch with Diana at the Cambridge Arts Theatre Restaurant (with me having their spicy soup and then poached cod) and then we just got back in time to the car park to avoid the £3.50 charge for three hours rather than that of £1.80 for two. Busy this afternoon making copies of the local government consultation paper for my colleagues and then starting the task of laying out the artwork for the new FOCUS advertisements.
Also made contact with a couple of journalists over my paper and offered it to them as the basis of an article. Also heard from Arthur Edmunds who is willing to build my new boat-shed and is quoting competitive prices for the building and the foundations. With this in mind, I have agreed to meet him on site on Friday afternoon. This evening, I accepted an invitation to attend the Town Council group meeting and there briefed them on my ideas for local government which will be presented as an all-party St Neots view. I also distributed such new advertisement copy as I had done and then stayed to discuss some crucial issues.
They decided to agree to Deputy Mayor, Graham Hunt, becoming Mayor for two years provided they received undertakings of neutrality from him. In particular, not to use his vote(s) accept to enable decisions to be made in the event of a tie; and then to maintain the status quo. This would effectively leave the Liberal Democrats in control of the Town Council by 9 votes to 8 if we got a replacement elected for Michael. In addition, we would want control of the committees and their chairmanship so that, in effect, our control of the council would be better than at the moment. They are still approaching a suitable candidate for the town but John Davidson is at last seriously considering the position of Priory District Councillor.
They went on to agree to a motion of Ross McKay (with changes to the wording) about publishing a questionnaire in their next "Bridge" Town Council Newsletter and so I was able to see them through all the matters that could be divisive and politically-damaging. I think that they can settle down to make a successful year of the St Neots Town Council without Michael. Home quite late but still time to have my drink and get to bed with Diana. She had quite a torrid time with the girls this evening.
Debbie was upset with me not being there to help with her chemistry homework (but she got the answers she needed from Angela on the telephone after trying Daniel!) and Della was upset at not being able to practise her piano successfully with her music lesson due tomorrow. We are getting reports from Debbie of her naughtiness on the bus, and I think that she will end up more outgoing than her brother and sister.