An active and warm day for my delayed recovery with Sam impressing Della who joined Diana and I for a trip to St Neots. Meeting Debbie outside The Lewis Hall by arrangement.
She was in her games kit and we had come to see her run 1500 metres as practice for next week's sports day.
The Cambridge Evening News did us proud with a full front page covering our by-election victory story including a full colour picture entitled "No end to Major's misery".
The Liberal Democrats also won the Eastleigh Parliamentary By-Election from the Tories in a landslide
We were in bed quite early last night and I appreciated the long rest accordingly. The only problem was that we had the bedclothes off as it had been very warm and I was chilly this morning as a result.
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I walked the dog with Della after breakfast and she was very impressed with his obedience and retrieving. I also tried to groom him afterwards as his orange patches have not quite moulted out yet. He is looking much better now that his puppy coat is going, and the brown coat is well-flecked with white to give him a more distinguished look.
It remains to be seen what the judges think of him tomorrow. To my desk to complete the last few days journal and then a few minutes updating my financial affairs in time to join Diana and Della for a trip into St Neots. I had to do some building society transactions and the others wanted to get Della's Saturday sweets and go to the library.
Our progress was interrupted by a South American Andes-type highlands band performing in the market square and, whilst we stood and watched it, I chatted to Cllr Graham Hunt. Once the girls had moved on, we went on to talk about the public meeting and Ross McKay's performance and then, out of the blue, he ventured the comment, "That's why Derek has said that he wanted me to join the group to help sort Ross McKay out", which reminded me that we were long overdue a discussion with Graham.
I walked back from the Market Square with him, and it was interesting to see how reverential he was being, particularly as the immediate past Mayor! Back to the car and on to Kimbolton School where we met Debbie outside The Lewis Hall by arrangement. She was in her games kit and we had come to see her run 1500 metres as practice for next week's sports day.
I had tried to encourage Della to run with her but she backed out and so I unloaded my pockets and did so instead. I have not run so far in decades but I warmed up with her and then ran around to pace and encourage her. We ran the first lap too fast and then she was all ready to give up before the second but I got her trotting on and then got her into a rhythm before picking up the pace on the last lap and, pretending to be tired at the end, got her to sprint past me
. Our time was 7 mins 45secs. which was quite good and at least she now knows that she can do it. I kept her jogging around afterwards to wind down and get her breath back before we made our way back to the car hot and tired. The air conditioning was very welcome as we drove back to the Little Paxton Little Chef for our lunch time rendezvous with Daniel and his two friends who were also invited for lunch.
This afternoon, my attention was concentrated on the second of England's Rugby Union matches with South Africa during which the latter's violent tactics sufficiently unsettled the England players to rock them back on the defensive. This, together with their superior line-out possession and attacking kicking policy, kept England in their own half for most of the match and they lost easily after holding out against all the odds in the first half.
Daniel became upset with me for not wanting to be disturbed (even during the post-match interview with our captain) as he was desperate to borrow one of my computers, but I was having none of it. In the end, he stomped off. Another long run for Sam and several long water retrieves across weed rafts and with difficult entries and he acquitted himself well. Back for tea and then the evening working on my computer and taking and making telephone calls. T
he Cambridge Evening News did us proud with a full front page covering the story including a full colour picture entitled "No end to Major's misery". The weather was really nice today; quite sunny and warm. The Liberal Democrats also won the Eastleigh Parliamentary By-Election from the Tories in a landslide and the Labour Party retained four others by increased margins with the LibDems relegating the Tories into third place in two of them.