Collecting my upgraded air rifle from St Ives and noting its poor planning policy destroying its market place aspect.
Triumphing with Sam finding his lost whistles and then more election work as I and sort out my office. T
he South African polling has been extended a further day in some key areas which is good news.
The fine weather continues but for how long we shall see. It was about time that I collected my air rifle from the manufacturers in St Ives where they had been upgrading it to firearm-standard power. I was intending to take Diana this morning but it was her slimming club and so it was this afternoon when we went.
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A nice drink and bun in the cafe as we waited for them to finish it off and then I went back and got it whilst she had a look around the town centre. St Ives suffers from poor planning policy as awful 1960's-style commercial buildings spoiled the vicinity of the old market place. It shares poor road and footpath standards of maintenance with St Neots and Huntingdon and the variety of garish signs and poorly-kept street furniture in some places needs upgrading to the better style in others. I picked the gun up to find out that it had been upgraded to the Super-FAS standard of 30lbs/sq.in power and now has a trajectory fairly flat up to 60 metres which is remarkable.
Once back, I zeroed in the sights on the games lawn over a range of something like 30-40m and ended up with all three shots in the bull. Sam got a very long run this morning and achieved a remarkable thing. His waterwork and obedience had been quite good and I took him on a long walk through the gravel pits so as to come back across some barley that was growing up to a promising length. I was then horrified to find that I had lost his whistles and could not run him after all that trouble. I knew the approximate area it might be in and tried looking for it to no avail but I reckoned without Sam. He then joined in the search at my request and picked them up by their string and brought them back with tail wagging!
So difficult for him to know what I was looking for, let alone to find them and retrieve them like that. A smaller run this evening in view of the heat and his tiredness from this morning. I did not go out canvassing tonight but did some more organisation instead. A longer chat to Sandy and Derek on the telephone to find out that the problem is between Derek and their 14-year-old daughter Anne-Marie and with him flying off the handle with her provocation and smashing up her room and television.
I think that they are afraid of what he might do to her and that was the reason for the Social Services involvement. The daughter is staying away for a couple of nights in the hope that things may calm down. Jim called this evening and we made arrangements for our joint training tomorrow evening prior to the Norwich & District Wild fowling Club meeting. The South African polling has been extended a further day in some key areas which is good news.