A windy and wet start to the month turning milder later to end a dark and chilly winter and even a minor earthquake to add to the mix. I had my nose operation, recovered from it, and Della was fine and running around with a limp, but Di had some stomach pains and screening tests. Her mother was also quite il with a bad cold.
Daniel had been visiting with Angela and the two were most welcome, as I laid plans for another Disneyland holiday to France. I gave up on Freda and just gave her more money for alterations but drew the line there. For my own part, I had my successful nose operation but the recovery and convalescence was difficult and took time until I was fit enough to first work at home, needing rest often.
I then spent time planning the reorganisation of the electrics on Paxton Princess before cruising it back to Heronshaw from Barnes in Wroxham. I was also planning the rebuilding and development of my Heronshaw plot in Horning, eventually rejecting expensive architect and inflexible local builder options and opting for a self-design and build option with the help of Steven Bloom.
After having continued problems with former colleague Michal Pope and in the aftermath of the St Neots Town Council rows, and with lots of other demands upon my time, I decided to stand down from political activity after the following May and retire from my Councillor and Group Leader role. I still worked on LibDem matters in the meantime holding the Tories to task on the HDC and editing Focus newsletters. An I.R.A. bomb explosion at London Bridge Station one evening with more than twenty hurt and several kept in hospital overnight.
There was more bad news for the government with unemployment and mortgage repossessions both at record levels. At least the inflation figures showed a fall from 4.6% to 4.1%, but this was accompanied by yet more news of job losses and economic contraction. The proprietor of Barlows Clowes was jailed for fraud as the Thatcher deregulation of the City caused another blow. Together with the US heavyweight boxer/rapist and it seems that both will get around 10 years in prison.
Paddy Ashdown seems to be surviving the revelations about his having had an affair with a former secretary and the latest polls even showed the Liberal Democrats up 2%!There was a BBC TV documentary with Diana on the life and work of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II after cameras had followed her around for the last year.and news about HM The Queen’s visit to Australia
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I was glad to see the end of February and with it, I hope, the winter of 1991/2. It was a dark and chill winter, with gales and rain though not even fresh with snow, and so as depressing as the economic and social news. It turned milder later and even foggier at times but then the sun made an appearance, and I was even able to open the conservatory ventilator for the first time this year. On one day, we were also woken by a minor earthquake tremor centred in Peterborough in the early hours. During this month, we managed to get Della going back to school on the bus and she had mostly recovered from her accident. We took her for her hospital check-up which had given the ‘’all-clear’ for normal activity and Diana took Della to a show. We eventually heard from the Kimbolton School Domestic Bursar that the school bus would be stopping near here at the new place that I recommended, morning and night, which was a relief. When then collecting Della from the school bus stop I had to insist that she did not run ahead again like last time! Della had her friend Esther from Alconbury House to play with her one evening, and I enjoyed some rough play with Della as she still limped on another day at home.
Della was able to join Diana for their Brownies "Thinking Day" service as she continued to recover. I took her to St Neots library and stayed in one evening for want of baby-sitter. On the other hand, poor Debbie had been put into her tooth-straightening brace but, after some initial upset, she bore the experience bravely. . She also kept me company and comforted me during my own convalescence. She was to be found later in the month with her visiting guest Jo, bouncing around in her bedroom with no intention of going to bed until I had to settle them down. Debbie was able to enjoy another social day, after a late start, as Diana took her and five girls bowling in Bedford, to lunch at Pizza Hut and then an afternoon in the "Oasis" swimming pool for a long session swimming and using the whirlpools and water chutes. Debbie was being collected from the Gym Club after school.
Diana and I were doing quite well on our diets (me better than her!) and should be ready to wear lighter clothes for the better weather. Diana was also off to have her own screening session at The Evelyn Hospital where she was having a "mammography" and "cervical smear" tests She also had some stomach pains one night; probably to do with her period. I took her for a trip for coffee in Brackenbury's Cambridge and Di’s parents, finding Norma quite ill with a cold, but we had we had lunch in the Cambridge Arts Theatre Restaurant afterwards. Less successfully, I took her to watch a spy-thriller in which just about everybody got shot! Daniel and Angela came to visit and the whole family were very glad of this. I spent the day at home with them watching TV films, and I stayed up with them as I was having trouble in getting to sleep anyway.
I also stayed with them as Diana takes the girls out to family lunch at Chris’s house which was awkward, for them. We had the chance to discuss likely dates to take them over to France for a few days to experience the new EuroDisney theme park experience as I have agreed that we will go this year. With everything else that was going down, I had rather thrown in the towel with Freda and just given her the money for the alterations to Redgrave Stores that she wanted and let her get on with it, but I resolved to lend no more. I managed to see Mum in Stanton for the first time in a while and found her okay but had been keen to see the family again as it was some time since we managed a visit.
For myself, my tax plans were well laid for the year end and I caught up with much outstanding administration. Constantly working at my desk, I needed breaks where I could watch a little television or. more usefully, tour Little Paxton delivering all of my letters or driving to St Neots undertaking building society transactions. Next, I travelled to The Evelyn Hospital for my nose operation, waiting until later in the day to have my Pre-Med and later still to have my operation after which the sickness and bleeding was difficult to cope with. For the whole of the next day, I was recovering under the supervision of Mr Ellis as the bleeding started off heavy but gradually lessened; the accumulating blood in my stomach making me sick.
I had visits from Charles and Norma, who brought grapes and then Di and the girls who ate them later! I was ready the following morning for Di to collect me and I had a further recovery day after an uncomfortable night but was well enough to chase the girls about turning off lights and tidying their rooms. I was catching up with my journal from notes, but it was an uncomfortable day at home as Diana was no ‘Florence Nightingale’! It was a restless experience trying to sleep, being required to sit in an upright position to allow my nose to ‘drain’. I felt a little better, if tired, the day after and tried some more time at my desk and computer before resting and reading in the lounge again.
I managing to get back in my office work for a change after which having a nice bath and then washing my hair which was very necessary. I was also taking a bit more time and trouble to feed the Koi carp and soon able to start reading correspondence and newspapers, undertaking more administration and updating my journal again, eventually managing a full day of office work. This, as my nose improved a little better with less discharge and the occasional hint of air being able to get through, I craved the following Friday when I could experience the joy of starting to breathe freely again and so I went back to the Evelyn Hospital on Valentine’s Day to have my nose splints removed after struggling with the discomfort and inconvenience on that last day before doing so.
Then, I managed to help the girls with their quite difficult homework. The following day, after a very late awakening, I made my own breakfast and then read the newspapers whilst getting back to normal. On my last day of recuperation, |I watched England trounce the French at Rugby Union in the Park des Princes. It was a quite a hard-fought match before the French lost their discipline and had two players sent off. At least my recovery diet of fish led to me getting under my 13st 7lbs target that I have been aiming at for more than a year!
The Paxton Princess has had its "out-of-water" jobs done and was then running well and I had been reading up on marine electronics and planning the rewiring and equipment alterations for completion before Easter. I had chatted to Jason and the others today about how to rig up my boat electrics to reduce electrical noise as much as possible and then calculated the battery drain and re-charging characteristics. The boat would then recover from the battery drain of mooring for 24 hours by cruising for just 6. I laid out my boat electrical circuit diagram and managed a productive flying visit with Di to Wroxham where I successfully installed and tested my Wayplan cable and decided the fridge insulation needed improvement. Finally, I visited Jeckells to see about a carpet quotation and then other suppliers before casting off on Paxton Princess and cruising back to Heronshaw.
My main concern was for Heronshaw, where I need the building regulations approval and piling plan for Mr Amis to get on with the work this month. My friend, Steven, had promised to help but my architects could only estimate sky-high costs and charges. I then planned the river bank protection in Horning with Mr Amis and considered a quote from Arthur Edmonds for rebuilding Heronshaw but had an unsatisfactory meeting with this very inflexible builder. Then, listening to Nigel and Steven about how to redevelop my Horning property, I had a good meeting with Steven Bloom when he suggested doing without architects, modifying existing boat-house designs and commissioning builders and piling contractors direct and he offered to do some research for me. This, as I had day of important meetings with my two Trustees making investment and taxation decisions which would provide the finance.
Withing local politics, I was having continuing difficulty with my constituency colleagues who wanted me to spend more time on the general election but I had other priorities and had already laid the plans for a new change of direction. I announced to my reasons for retiring in May at the end of my councillor term to Percy and constituency colleague David Rooney about my decision to stand down from local political activity. Earlier, I had a depressing note from Michael saying that he would not change his mind or be attending the following two HDC meetings and, if he could not make this compromise for selfish reasons, this had confirmed my own intentions not to stand again for Council the following May.
After my operation, I received Percy, who brought some political correspondence and then got back to some routine catching up with all of the mail, calls and faxes that had been unattended to during my absence. Despite decisions on my future, I was still hard at work locally in the meantime, liaising with Dr Patel over a new Paxton surgery, chairing my LibDem group meeting in the evening preparing for a full HDC Council meeting and then making a good contribution. I wrote up a paper on Local Government Re-organisation, for the HDC Planning Committee Meeting and helped my St Neots Council colleagues agree strategy.
A participated in a full 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. By this time, I had heard from my S.W. Cambs colleagues who were concerned at my retirement and preparations for the General Election in the St Neots area. There was still the task of managing efforts on the latest FOCUS editions where I had to try and incorporate Derek and Ross articles and there was always constituency correspondence and work on the Focus advertisement copy to pay for circulation. My plans for retirement were further confirmed when I came home to find Della and Debbie had both been upset at my absence, as they had got used to me being their during my convalescence.
During my convalescence and breaks in other work I enjoyed watching televised sport, watching England beat the Irish Rugby Union team, celebrating underdogs. Southampton beat Manchester United by penalty kicks as the match was still level after extra time and sharing the tragedy in New Zealand when one of our test bowlers fractured a knee-cap during the last day of the last match. More seriously, there was an I.R.A. bomb explosion at London Bridge Station one evening with more than twenty hurt and several kept in hospital overnight. There was more bad news for the government with unemployment and mortgage repossessions both at record levels. At least the inflation figures showed a fall from 4.6% to 4.1%, but this was accompanied by yet more news of job losses and economic contraction, yet the government still favoured an April election.
The proprietor of Barlows Clowes was jailed for fraud as the Thatcher deregulation of the City caused another blow. Together with the US heavyweight boxer/rapist and it seems that both will get around 10 years in prison. There was a further political row following the Tory press featuring of Neil Kinnock's contacts with the USSR and, after a Tory burgled confidential documents from his solicitor and tried to sell them to the tabloid press, Paddy Ashdown seems to be surviving the revelations about his having had an affair with a former secretary and the latest polls even showed the Liberal Democrats up 2%! There was a BBC TV documentary with Diana on the life and work of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II after cameras had followed her around for the last year.and news about HM The Queen’s visit to Australia.