The weather was wet, windy and very cold with hard frosts and substantial snow as winter drew to a close. This was a big training month for Sam as he overcome his aggression towards other dogs and, gained enormously from being petted by all and humanisation during these communal events, improved and did some good retrieves upon both dummies and cold birds.
Sam also benefitted from being amongst over forty dogs in his Harlow sessions and other specialist training. His need for more running space was answered by my making the acquaintance of a Molesworth political colleague giving us access to 250 acres of set-aside.
My help was rewarded as the LibDems won the Eaton Ford by-election. There was still time for making boating arrangements for the cold weather and for finally updating of my financial and administrative affairs so that I could compile my investment and income summary and thus resolve the year's tax planning with my advisers.
Nigel was struggling through changes of staff and suffering the courts over his alleged insurance fraud where he now faced a retrial. He eventually got our Cambridge Street property investment underway. I took lessons at the Mid-Norfolk Shooting School and bought ten "squashable" pigeon decoys.
Apart from tossing pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, I helped Debbie and Della to make a formidable snowman, as Diana was struggling with the house and children and our relationship seemed to be getting steadily worse. I did my best to cheer her up during the month in other ways and took her out often to the cinema and for many meals out.
A good month for Daniel as he got his automatic gearbox repaired and his transmission completely overhauled at a cost of only £190. Debbie and Della were both causing problems in their own way but were both great with the dog.
Elsewhere, John Major was still struggling to control his Chief Treasury Secretary Lilley, who made another xenophobic speech criticising overseas educational standards. The House of Commons rejected the death penalty once more by an even greater majority than last time but agreed a new age of consent for homosexuality, reducing it from 21 to 18.
The world was still grieving and wringing its hands after the mortar attack on Sarajevo marketplace where over sixty people were killed. NATO planes were enforcing the no-fly zone over Bosnia by shooting down four Serb planes as they attacked a munitions factory in the protected area.
A mad attack by an ex-American Israeli settler extremist jeopardised the PLO peace talks. He killed over fifty religious worshippers at a mosque. Norwich City could only draw their Premier League matches this month after selling Ruel Fox, their fast striker, for over £2million and there were some ground protests planned as a result.
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A month of major achievement for me but no thanks to the for much of the time and gales interrupted electrical power at Hail Weston. The first three quarters of the month continued bitterly cold with hard frosts that froze the Paxton gravel pits and Horning dykes and left treacherous roads and frost everywhere. We were in Norfolk thereafter for the snow fall four inches thick to the delight of the girls who made a big snowman. The rains returned with the longer daylight in the last week to complete a very wet winter but at least it was much milder by then.
My help was most rewarding as the LibDems won the Eaton Ford by-election. I supervised the polling computer and organised our efforts well so that we were rewarded by a good result, our candidate John Scott winning by 699 votes to 384 against a very large Tory majority last time! Thus motivated, I went over to Sally and Brian Guinee afterwards to copy across computer files of electoral roles ready for updating for the forthcoming May elections and reviewed our plans with Derek and Percy .
Whilst in Horning, I looked up Rupert Latham of The Steam and Electric Launch Company and had trial runs on his steam powered boats. I was not ignoring The Paxton Princess, but fired up its warm-air heating and started the engine to clear away the cobwebs and charge up the batteries. Back home in Paxton, it was The Hayling View downstairs shower room that got the treatment as I finished stripping off the first lot of tiles, cleaned them off for resetting after applying sealer.
One of the least inspiring landmarks of the month was the final updating of my financial and administrative affairs so that I could compile my investment and income summary and thus resolve the year's tax planning with my advisers. We reviewed the range of family trusts and investments and agreed end-of-year tax transactions to include the property purchases. Having been let down once too often by Abbey National, I researched details of all of our outstanding account payments by direct debit and standing order ready for us to close our cheque account.
My main new computer was sent back and I bought computer accessories at Evesham Micros and toner cartridges recharged at Supercharge to get the laser printer working again. Trouble at home as I kept having to chivvy Bill along who was always reckoning it was too wet to work and wanting to go home! Nigel was struggling through changes of staff and plans but eventually got our Cambridge Street property investment underway. During our snooker evenings, he told me of his fate at the hands of the courts over his alleged insurance fraud where he now faces a retrial. I also met him for an afternoon pigeon shooting on his shoot near Peterborough. I took a lesson at the Mid-Norfolk Shooting School and bought ten "squashable" pigeon decoys to help me next time out.
It was a much more significant month for Sam which was worth relating in detail. It began with the "dog break" accompanying other keen handlers in Brancaster for training. He started off being a problem with his aggression towards other dogs but then improved and did some good retrieves upon both dummies and cold birds such as pheasants. He still exhibited his normal failing of crunching the birds by mouthing them and sometimes found nothing when quartering, but he was good at crossing inlets and swimming.
Most of all, Sam benefited enormously from being petted by all and humanisation during these communal events which, being kept outside, he normally lacked. I managed to keep him under reasonable control during these events, and he had the important experience of time in the grounds of Holkham Hall and Park. This provided a particularly good day's training with woods and cover being full of rabbits and the fields full of hares to tempt him to run out of control.
Once home I got Sam sitting quietly both in the back of the car and in the garage when asked and was steady to a rabbit-skinned dummy and a dead pheasant which were thrown near him. He had a few more opportunities and changes of routine after this, as I tried to introduce him to new landscape around Yelling for a walk across planted fields where he quartered better than before and over the fields from the top of Priory Hill.
His monthly session in Harlow found him amongst over forty dogs but he was rewardingly well-behaved. I made more arrangements for obedience training via Bob Steele at Alconbury on successive Tuesdays at Cromwell Farm Kennels in Bury, near Ramsey, where at first, he wanted to mark his presence all over the place but then I soon had him settling well and behaving himself.
The month saw him doing some good water retrieves; the furthest he has done for a long time. Once he was in the water for the first time, he was quite willing to return thereafter. His dummy-holding improved slowly, his retrieves were still nothing short of excellent but in his quartering, he still runs too far forward of the handler and, even though he now points pheasants quite regularly, you can rarely get level with him.
He was now allowed in my office on a blanket very occasionally when he was wet and cold and drying out. We found a training kennel for forthcoming holidays and Trevor Rigby who took me and Sam out on the training field and he acquitted himself quite well amongst distinguished company.
After much trouble, he became more experienced and gentler on the wood pigeons he had to retrieve and a mallard without damage which had come as a great relief to me. For his first real experience of the snow, I let him range widely in the dark and this turned out to be a near disaster as he did not realise that some snow covering thin ice was the dyke and plunged in and through to find himself swimming and struggling to get out of the icy water!
His need for more running space was answered by my making the acquaintance of a Molesworth political colleague with 250 acres of set-aside and there. once he tried it, Sam soon took off in pursuit of up to three hares and got another beating for his pains before he became steadier. He also benefited from a pre-arranged dog-training day with Jimmy Bird and his dog Ben when Jim showed me how to stand Sam for show judging. I had the offer from Martin Sullivan to do some tracking when we get the chance.
It was Diana's constant criticism that I take more notice of Sam than her and she was right again at this time. It was a poor month for her, ending up in a state of depression and exhaustion that came to a head with a row. The mistake that I had made was to invite Sam into my office when Di was out shopping in Bedford and she was still fuming over Sam's excursion into the house a day later!
Apart from tossing pancakes on Shrove Tuesday as my parental contribution, I helped Debbie and Della to make a formidable snowman. Diana was worried over the financial health of EuroDisney, our intended holiday destination this spring. She was also struggling with the house and children and our relationship seemed to be getting steadily worse and a cause of concern, but I made it up with her again later and spoke to the children so that they would also give her a bit more cooperation and peace. I did my best to cheer her up during the month in other ways and took her out to the cinema in Bedford where we saw "Waynes World II" and the new film "Cool Running" and to Peterborough where we saw the films "In the Name of The Father" and "Mrs Doubtfire". She also appreciated the meals out to The Bridge in St Neots, the Croxton Happy Eater and several lunches at Brackenbury's.
At least we had a change of scenery at half term and she also joined Daniel for a trip to Norwich on another occasion and got a coffee and scone in Jarrold’s and a little chance to do some shopping for her trouble. Whilst we were there together we had several trips with the girls for lunch to The Horning Tea Shoppe, some bread and soup at The Swan and a special evening meal with Diana alone for a carvery dinner at The Broads Hotel in Wroxham.
Di and Debbie met up with Daniel for a communal contact lens service at Julian Gunn and lunch at The Pizza Hut afterwards. Off to the Cromer Regal where we saw "Save Willy" and a family visit to Bury Road, Aylsham, where we had been invited to lunch by our friends Francis Dyer, Sam Weller and their children Jonathan & Amy.
Once home again and, having seen how Francis kept Bury Road, Di took heart, and this helped her to address her problem at not being able to keep up with the housework now that Daniel is back at home and making as much mess as ever. She resolved to get some help with the housework, but she still had to go through a tummy upset whilst arranging the interviews. Once she found a lady that suited, she assumed an exhilarated frame of mind and was obviously relieved.
A good month for Daniel as he put his car in for automatic gearbox repairs and got them done and his transmission completely overhauled at a cost to him of only £190. He had exchanged nice cards with Dawn for Valentines Day but ceased his relationship with her soon after! Debbie was in the doghouse this month as on one occasion we planned to take the girls out to the cinema in Bedford and actually got as far as driving down the A1 but then both her and Della's behaviour was so appalling that I turned the car round and brought them home to spend the evening thinking about how to behave towards their parents. Debbie threw another day into confusion as she was late out for her bus, missed it, and had to be driven into school by an irate Di who got her own back by charging her a taxi fare!
Della was in the same doghouse his month but, at other times, she joined me in the office and helped me light and tend the fire whilst she finished off her homework. She also came out with me and Sam and was able to take him with Diana across St Neots Common on his lead and managed it quite well. Her interest in animals had her playing with a friend's cat and then rubbing her eye until it had swollen again. We responded by washing her hair and giving her a bath before bed and this calmed it down. Other news was of her trip to the London Science Museum and of her having a school boyfriend in Mathew Ellerbeck!
Elsewhere, more people and political problems for John Major who was still struggling to control his Chief Treasury Secretary Lilley who made another xenophobic speech criticising overseas educational standards. Another of his colleagues was found dead in suspicious circumstances and an election will result.
The news here was of a rare earthquake near Swaffham in Norfolk in mid-month. Although measuring only 4.0 on the Richter Scale and causing no casualties and only cosmetic damage, the tremors were felt throughout the county. All hands went down with a bulk carrier sinking way out in the Atlantic off of Lands End.
The House of Commons rejected the death penalty once more by an even greater majority than last time and also agreed a new age of consent for homosexuality; reducing it from 21 to 18. This did not satisfy the so-called "Gay Rights" campaigners who wanted complete equality with heterosexual couples and they demonstrated violently outside afterwards. News also of all manner of violent arson attacks which included one that killed and injured a family and another a cinema full of men
The world is still grieving and wringing its hands after the mortar attack on Sarejevo marketplace where over sixty people were killed. The western nations agonised over the possibility of an air-strike in retaliation but they just limited themselves to intercepting some warplanes later in the month. A widening rift between NATO and United Nations over how to react to the Bosnian Serbs but disagreement over the ultimatum for control of all heavy weapons to be surrendered to the U.N. was avoided when the Russians got involved and secured the Serb's agreement.
The main news, however, was of the NATO planes enforcing the no-fly zone over Bosnia by shooting down four Serb planes as they attacked a munitions factory in the protected area. A mad attack by an ex-American Israeli settler extremist has jeopardised the PLO peace talks. He killed over fifty religious worshippers at a mosque.
. A poor month of sport and start of the Rugby Union International season as England battled away in a hard-fought Calcutta Cup match away to Scotland and just scraped through by a converted penalty with the last kick of the match and then lost a close match to Ireland and both the First Test and second one-day match against the West Indies.
In Little Paxton, the NRA started work on the downstream approaches to the Paper Mill Lock where they are improving the landing areas downstream of the Paper Mill Lock. Norwich City could only draw their Premier League matches this month after selling Ruel Fox, their fast striker, for over £2million and there were some ground protests planned as a result.