A wet and cold year of unsettled weather patterns, with our Horning road and neighbouring properties suffering the worse flooding since 1912 and the coastal sea defences breached. Our holiday in San Francisco suffering unusual rain which did not help the worsening plight of the homeless tramps and mounting level of violence.
We found a short spell of agreeable weather to make trips on The Paxton Princess; via Oulton Broad, Mutford Lock and Lowestoft Harbour as we made the sea journey out and then in again at Great Yarmouth. Also a significant year for me, my family holidays and dog training but a very sad one as my Mum dies.
A year of car crime also with both mine and my gardeners car broken into as I chair the foundation meeting of the first Neighbourhood Watch Scheme in Little Paxton. A shameful year too as the Daily Mirror invaded the privacy of The Princess of Wales by publishing photographs of her working out at a private gymnasium.
Enjoying my friendships with Nigel, Steven Bloom and also my new dog-training friend Jim Bird, sharing sessions under the aegis of the Pointer Club in Harlow when Sam was declared "Best Puppy" by the Eastern Region. This despite us having some health scares with him. With our dogs, we enjoyed a successful fortnight in my Broubster Caithness plantation catching trout and shooting stags and another bafgging grouse and the 13-point Imperial Stag from my own land was a real prize trophy for me.
Back home, Local County Council and District & Town Council by-elections were rewarding for the Liberal Democrats under my leadership whilst my party ended up with more councils in which they had a dominant interest than the Conservatives.
I acquired 50-52 Cambridge Street in a good deal for Diana and Nigel's investment and a property each for the children’s trusts. Less success with Freda selling Redgrave Stores. I experimented with a range of new programmes for computer navigation and weather monitoring and increased the capacity and display performance of my Amstrad portable.
We all had coughs and colds in March. By the time of my 47th birthday in November my latest health screen tests at The Evelyn Hospital showed my health holding up very well.
As winter came on, Della faltered and looked as if she was very ill with asthmatic breathing troubles as well, but she soon recovered. Debbie had her first contact lenses fitted and was being bullied at school and Daniel achieved a Lower Second Honours Degree in Computing Science but broke up with Angela but had a new, young, blonde girlfriend called Dawn, his roller-skating companion.
The bombing season resumed in April when the City of London was on the receiving end of a massively-destructive IRA car bomb and this, together with another outrage at an Ulster fish shop later in the year, put the issue of Irish determination back on the political agenda yet progress still seemed possible in Northern Ireland.
Peace bids in the Middle East eventually paid off and progress seemed possible in Northern Ireland but the affairs of the former Yugoslavia went from one crisis to another. The United States lead Western attacks on Iraq lost the support of Western allies and had to cease. In October we saw Russian President Boris Yeltzin's tanks and heavy artillery shell their own Parliament building and set it on fire.
The macabre spectacle of Russians killing Russians as other Russians watched on from grandstand seats. There was Norwich City's famous victory over Bayern Munich and the Great Britain Rugby League team's win the series against the Kiwis and England also beating the Kiwis in their Rugby Union Test Match as well. Nelson Mandela and President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa were rewarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
