David A Broad
A personal story
More than 40 years, told day by day
September 1994 - A stormy month of weather with East Anglian deluges as torrential rain drowned Ropes Hill Dyke road but a mild one nevertheless. The biggest storm of the month was my Marital Crisis emanating from Diana as she read my journal jottings and found out about my affair with Wiggly.
This had followed another heavenly month of illicit lovemaking as I showered Wiggly with gifts, but things calmed down for a while as Diana realised that she and the girls would be pretty lost without me. I was helping Wiggly move into her new house and I was being cautious but succumbed to the temptation and ignored the dangers which would return to haunt me later.
This new affair survives the critical doubts of her sister Joanne. I was still attending key dog training and trials with Sam and getting on well and surprisingly managed a full agenda of family outings and events with Diana and the girls, contributing to the hobbies and hobbies of the latter.
With Sam, I had access to shoot at Molesworth and at John Osborne's geese in the field opposite and then CFSA Ouse Washes for wildfowling. I used such time as I had to concentrate on long seen and memory retrieves, steadying him to shot and trying to run him without boring forward to much and he produced his best-ever points as a result.
He was mentioned in club magazine despatches for his Pointing Grading and was then eighth out of thirty-five Novices at the Laverstoke Park working test. He had been fit and healthy all summer but then went down with Gastro-enteritis, getting me up in the middle of the night to clear up his run. A diet of chicken and rice again after day's fast cleared him up on vets advice.
At Horning, I was planning the rebuilding of Heronshaw and I was still advising the St Neots & District Liberal Democrats and the tedium of paperwork and accounts was brightened up by the visit of former plot-owner Bill Clarke and his daughter. It was even more of a traumatic and eventful month for my best friend Nigel as he settled his insurance court case and separated from Lynn with a £250,000 cash and property settlement.
His personal life then takes a sexually-active turn as he frenetically searches for a love-match to replace her and Kate and then he has his full slate of business problems with MiPet etc. The months news is dominated by the IRA cease-fire and The Irish Times leads the way for Dublin to greet this as sufficiently permanent.
Back home, The chancellor edges up interest rates up 0.4% and gains few friends for doing so. Two grisly accidents with double-decker buses kill several as one overturns and another crashes into a low bridge. There is another ferry tragedy, this time in The Baltic with up to 1000 dead after the loading ramp doors fail, making the craft capsize within ten minutes.
A US 747 passenger plane also crashes, killing all 131 people on board. What appears to be a suicide pilot dies on the lawn of the US White House with no other casualties. There is a huge Mumps inoculation campaign underway for schoolchildren here after fear of an epidemic whilst authorities struggle to contain Pneumonic Plague in India.
Amongst the other news, my old sparring partner Cllr Derek Holley has a quadruple heart-valve by-pass operation at Papworth which brings back memories. In sport, Daimon Hill catches up Michael Schumacher in the Formula 1 Grand Prix table due to the latter's suspension.
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Ultra-early journey to shoot with Jim in the Norfolk marches where Sam made a good retrieve in a fast-flowing tidal stream.
Then to collect Wiggly from the train station for meal at the Floating Restaurant and night at The Hotel Nelson
Jim had arranged to have the day off from work and we had decided to try a day on the marshes, training the dogs and chancing our arm on the wildfowl.
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Office paperwork and Hayling View tasks before a walk around Paxton with Sam and a hunt for top-soil. Then a visit with Wiggly to the new Range Rover launch
Tired after a couple of days dog walking and shooting, mindful of the fact of my need to prepare him for his first Field Trial next week. I was late making breakfast and then only just got out with the children to walk them to the bus stop.
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Training Sam and keeping Diana happy and watching another of the televised European football matches and this time saw Manchester United in a goalless draw.
The main news is of another ferry tragedy. Like The Herald of Free Enterprise, this one the M/s Estonai also capsized with the great loss of life of 850 people
Was sound asleep for the night and did not even get up for the toilet I was so tired. Diana regressed to being a bit grumpy first thing but then seemed to cheer up and relax once the children were down to breakfast.
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At home with Sam who was unwell with Gastro-enteritis and so I did not go to Cambridge but I met up with Nigel for a meal and then shot over Richard Ward’s Molesworth Farm with Sam who had improved.
It was my first night back in bed with Diana who graciously allowed me that promotion after previously confining me to the spare bedroom. I was late back from Nigel, and this was disturbing enough but worst still was a hectic whining coming from Sam at 3.00am in the middle of the night.
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Back at home with Diana and to catch up with my work and then shopping for a new detachable bed for our new circumstance.
Then, the evening with Nigel discussing our marital and relationship issues where I see Wiggly as being 15 years to young but Nigel sees as a long-term love match and about the most compatible couple that he has ever seen!
I was awoken by Diana, obviously in a much better mood, who brought me in a cup of tea in bed and gathered the pillows and wrapped my dressing gown around me as I sat up.
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