Meeting up with Di’s parents and making a car offer, undertaking Ropes Hill Dyke road correspondence, and making a Cambridge Street visit with Nigel.
A one-day rail strike called for the next day after failed pay negotiations and Tottenham Hotspur are on the receiving end of some draconian punishments for making illegal payments to players and staff
The warm sunny weather continued and Sam continued to moult his winter/puppy coat. I took him swimming this morning before the advent of the fishing season would make his use of the pits too disruptive. He did a good split water retrieve under direction by signal and whistle so that I could call him off one retrieve and get him to do another first.
**"Read More" BELOW for the complete story**
I also used the starting pistol to drop Sam to shot and try to steady him up for seen retrieves. I did not feel so good this morning as I had too many drinks with Nigel last night. I opted not to go with Diana to Cambridge to see her parents as I had too much to do but she told them about the recent developments over the repairs to the Ford Escort. The insurance company has refused to pay so that we are now going to court to get the money.
I later offered to give the car to Charles and Norma with them undertaking the repair or we would take it back to Norfolk to use it as a spare car. As I was working away this morning, Nigel came round again and, after we had a pot of tea, he drove me down to Cambridge Street to see how well the building conversion had developed. Now the site had to be tidied up internally and, with our first tenant due to be inside within two weeks, a host of small matters have to be attended to.
Most of the afternoon writing reports and letters for the Ropes Hill Dyke Residents Association and then I faxed a letter to Robert Lawrence, our new secretary, and then posted a whole package of information that he will now be copying and distributing to the other residents. I then had to work on and write a number of letters to them individually, in reply to those written to us and to try to get them to join in our programme of planned road repairs. Some time debating with Diana what to do about my father's old car until I called him by telephone and made the offer of a gift for him to consider.
I broke off of my work before bedtime and relaxed for a while watching the TV news before bed. The biggest news this evening was of a one-day rail strike called for tomorrow. It seems that "Rail-Trak", the quasi-commercial organisation set up to run the rail network prior to privatisation, has made rather a mess of its annual pay negotiations with the signalmen. Junior managers first made a pay offer and then retracted it under pressure from the Department of Transport.
More government ineptitude! Tottenham Hotspur are on the receiving end of some draconian punishments from the Football Association for financial irregularities. They had been making illegal payments to players and staff over a long period and now face a huge fine, being banned from next season's FA Cup and also having a 12 point Premier League Points handicap in a year when four teams will have to be relegated to reduce the size of the league.