A wet month, though not a very cold one, leading to much flooding but no snow in eastern England. I made several journeys to Norfolk, working on Harnser and practicing computer navigation after enhancing my computer power.
I found our third investment property for the children's trusts, 52 Monarch Road, and otherwise manage to maintain The Hayling View house and gardens. Plenty of cinema and meal outings with the school and village carol services as highlights.
The unfortunate demise of a neighbour’s cat at our hands was a lowlight but the trip down memory lane to Brighton the opposite. More progress with Sam’s training until he fell sick.
The government went from one crisis and controversy to the next, locking up 300 Jamaicans visiting for Christmas but last minute Gatt negotiations succeeded and the Commons approved a bill to transform Sunday Trading rules.
Norwich City are eventually knocked out of Europe by Inter Milan after putting up a brave fight and another poignant seasonal broadcast from The Queen ended the year.
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A wet month to complete a wet year. The temperatures varied from being mild to cold but there was no great freeze and instead we had to deal with flood-water and wet ground everywhere. The road to Harnser never really had a chance to dry out and will need much maintenance next year as a result. The work at The Hayling View garden was held up. I lit a log fire in my office for much of the time as we listened to the wind whistling as there were a few gales as well. No white Christmas in eastern England but the snow was coming and settled in the north-west, Wales and Scotland. The quiet and cold brought a beautifully-furred dog fox into our garden on Christmas Sunday.
I made several journeys to Norfolk, tussling with the wet and the task of getting the dealer to try and repair my Land Rover but they singularly failed to do this; though we did get the Escort back to Norfolk and serviced to run properly. I did manage to tighten up the Harnser structural bolts and experimented with a range of new programmes for computer navigation and weather monitoring before I ended up bringing back most of the boat equipment and documentation to work on at home over Christmas.
I also achieved a fair degree of enhancement for my computer power as I increased the capacity and display performance of my Amstrad portable giving 256mbyte storage and a colour screen and added a high-performance 4/86 station as the centre of a house network. I had less success in getting a new motherboard for Daniel's computer and ended up in dispute with the supplier.
Managed to find our third investment property for the children's trusts, 52 Monarch Road, cleared The Hayling View gutters, got our shower tray leak fixed and dressed the house for Christmas. Had to continually chase the gardener to get on with the work in such inhospitable weather and we suffered Norfolk moles as the flooding sent them to our higher ground.
A nice trip to Norfolk with just the girls on one occasion when they cleared the local libraries of "Babysitters" books and I got on with my purchases. I treated them to Little Chef and McDonalds meals and took them to see "Adams Family Values" in Cromer. I had also spent time with Debbie at home and took her to the cinema to see the comedy "So I Married an Axe Murderer" when I found out she was being ostracised and bullied at school. Her skin acne is a problem for her but, apart from her tearful interludes, she bravely copes with it. Her teachers tell us that she is rather quiet in class.
Di had to attend her school carol service alone, but I and Di's parents joined her for Della's, where we saw Della in the choir for the first time singing favourite carols. I missed her Brownie service as well, but we were both with the girls for the Little Paxton Family Carol Service. Daniel enjoyed his first pay cheque and a couple of trips to Norfolk to go skating with Dawn but had a set back when his car broke down with ignition key problems in St Neots and we had to rescue him. Diana had a rotten bout of 'flu but also had a day at Henlow Grange to recover and came back most refreshed.
Another shock as she killed a neighbour's cat caught under the bonnet of our car when she started it but it was not her fault. We had a number of trips and meals out during the month to Happy Eater and Beefeater on Saturdays, Cambridge Tuesday coffee and meals and we all saw Alladin in Peterborough (even Daniel). She prepared an excellent Christmas and her parents joined us for Christmas Day lunch and her brother's family for Boxing Day tea and her liaison with Father Christmas met the children's' aspirations as far as presents were concerned. We joined sponsors in celebrity seats for Lynn and Nigel for the St Neots Choral Society's performance of Handel's Messiah which was not really Diana's cup of tea but she enjoyed our 25th Anniversary trip to Brighton most and three days in The Queens Hotel.
Our trip down memory lane to Brighton included all of our favourite haunts and had me wondering what had become of all of my old college friends. We watched the films "Perfect World" and "The Hawk" while we were there. Then to Norfolk for the New Year, taking the entire family to see The Theatre Royale pantomime Dick Whittington and do some more Norwich shopping in the Sales after dumping the girls at the libraries. We invited Sam Weller and Francis out for a meal and enjoyed their company.
I had got Sam his annual inoculation booster this month and made some progress on his training. His obedience slowly improved but he became more reluctant to enter the colder water until I started to get him back into it later in the month. Actual sickness for him as he was not himself for two days when he was sick and off his food but then he recovered and behaved well with Sue's dogs over Christmas even if the extra company did make him too excited.
Elsewhere, the government went from one crisis and controversy to the next; from Irish talks and joint declaration on the future of Ulster to domestic political problems. They insensitively locked up 300 Jamaicans protesting their aims as visiting families over here for Christmas. Even the Liberal Democrats got tied up with a race row in Tower Hamlets but faced the problem at last. There were last-minute panics on the GATT negotiations that were settled at the 11th hour and the Commons approved a bill to transform Sunday Trading rules. Norwich City are eventually knocked out of Europe by Inter Milan after putting up a brave fight. Another poignant seasonal broadcast from The Queen ended the year.