My Khaki Campbell ducks as youngsters
My Khaki Campbell ducks as youngsters

New Year’s Day enjoying our ducks and their eggs and an open fire with my family on a cold and frosty day as Mum awaits her Papworth operation and house fires, explosions and murders feature in the UK and Angola guerrillas hold British hostages in Angola

A long lay in this morning and asleep until 8.30am and my morning tea. Down to a breakfast of boiled egg and buttered bread. The ducks had laid their first egg yesterday and the kids insisted on sharing it with me. We must have made a funny sight, seats drawn together, dipping buttered bread fingers into an egg. Up to wash, shave and dress and Dad tended the ducks and doves this morning – he is getting into the routine and finds another single egg. A lazy morning first catching up on Sunday’s paper and Monday’s FT and then playing back videos I have recently made to Dad and Diana.

A fine lunch and then to light the fire early. A cold strong wind today was chilling the entire house, which had already cooled with our absence for a few days. Over to the plot to put the ducks away and to the office where I spend a couple of hours playing with our ACOMS and Futuba radio control sets and then back to read some RC magazines and look at the submarine kits and RC accessories. Tea of meat sandwiches, sausage rolls and Christmas cake, and a long film on the TV about the Guns of Navarone. Dad returns with news of Mum who is anticipating the operation and worried about any colds or other infections in the meantime. News today of three charged in Liverpool of conspiracy to cause explosions. Police are investigating a murder in London of a rich Greek businessman after his home had been broken into. A total of 7 more children have died in house fires. The Foreign Office is trying to find out more about the latest British hostages captured by UNITA guerrillas in Angola. War records released today after 30 years reveal the fate of British prisoners of war taken prisoner by Chinese in Korea. Cabinet papers also reveal British worries about the chances of nuclear war as US bases are introduced to East Anglia.