Della was still ill and I had a difficult call from Alf, a nice lunch with Wiggly and a cancelled evening's snooker with a very troubled Nigel.
On a very wet and windy day here, a powerful 7.2 earthquake has killed and injured thousands in Japan.
My notes of the news in bed again and found out today that a powerful earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter Scale has killed 600, injured a thousand and led to 500 more missing in Central Japan, with shocks reaching the second largest city of Osaka.
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This is the largest of a series of recent quakes. The government is facing defeat over fishing rights in The Irish Sea and depends upon Unionist support which is being linked to Irish Peace terms.
The Nolan enquiry begins today and looks into MP's gifts, lobbying etc. and other aspects of public probity. Tough new rules for supervising activity centres are being sought after the Lyme Bay canoeing deaths and the local M.P.'s private member's bill may be supported by the government.
Della was still ill enough to be able to miss breakfast and, after consulting Debbie, I decided not to bother walking Sam to the bus stop but concentrated on giving him a run and some training around the gravel pits instead.
He was quite well-behaved when meeting a few other dogs and did all I asked of him for his retrieving so that, once I find more time and opportunity, I think we can resume his development.
I had an emotional letter from Alf this morning sent before he had received mine and then I had to tussle with my computer as one of the commands had been disabled accidentally and was not working as I was trying to write a difficult reply to him.
Then he telephoned in a very emotional state having read my letter and taken exception to just about everything in it. His attitude was just about one of wanting to pass the property over to me and wash his hands of the whole affair and he insisted that his dog was his only friend and could not be got rid of under any circumstances.
I talked to him for an hour and made him see a lot of sense, but he still has a selective view of things and refuses to accept reality.
I was ready to have a break and so, with my having already agreed with Diana that I should have a pub lunch out with Nigel, I went early, and this was just the break that I needed.
In fact, I was meeting Wiggly, and we had a nice drink and meal of roast beef in our favourite pub and were just about the only guests there as the wild, windy and uncomfortable weather was keeping just about everybody in their offices.
She was having a busy but productive day and had organised another meeting for 1.30pm so that we could not stay together long. Funny to see how the barmaid takes a great interest in us and is visibly trying to work out what our relationship is and why we are together!
Nigel cancelled this evening's snooker which was a pity as I wanted to go over several things with him. It seems that his ex-partner Lynn has been making long calls upsetting him and is unstable for some reason or other such that now her father has asked to see Nigel urgently this evening in London to sort out what's best to be done.
This was obviously more important than seeing me. Out with Sam again this afternoon at dusk when the wind was even stronger and the day wilder than this morning.
There must be a very deep weather system around as it amounts to a severe gale and fences and trees will be affected.
Once I had set up my computer again, I copied across my diary notes and completed my journal for these last two days. Much of this evening going through Debbie's OASIS Career Guidance results, explaining the meaning of all of it and helping her choose suitable choices for further investigation.