Mum Grace Broads heart operation at Papworth 4th January 1985
Mum Grace Broads heart operation at Papworth 4th January 1985

A day of leisure, shopping and family connections whilst Mum’s Operation takes place in Papworth today, my heraldic stationery arrives and the print unions escalate action and video conferencing starts with AT & T

 

Awake a little earlier today at 7.00am and I read The Financial Times with my tea. All stocks and shares down and a massive 10p off of Kode to plumb a new low of 190p. A milder morning with less frost and the sky grey with possible snow showers in the offing. Breakfast of a single slice of toast and honey and then back to bed to read the Investors Chronicle and catch up on my journal. I decide to put more effort into finding some suitable investments in land as both long term growth for the capital and safety from my prediction of a bear market in 1985. As I get up, my stationery arrives from Selwyn Press of Bury. With the coat of arms beautifully done, it is a good morale booster.

We set off for Sandy at 11.00am after Diana drops off Daniel to spend the day with the Skinners. They are due to take him to see the film ‘Gremlins’. On to the Waresley Park Garden Centre and there to order over £1,200 of Allibert Gorden furniture. A handsome price, even after a 25% discount on 1985 prices, but we think our riverside barbeques deserve a good facility. On to Cambridge and lunch of roast beef in The Copper Kettle – a traditional restaurant/cafeteria with fine old tables and furnishings. A couple of hours shopping in the sales and I buy a number of British theme calendars to send with my new printed business cards and complement slips to my computer industry acquaintances. Home in time for 4.00pm and I join Dad as he phones Papworth for news on Mum. They say that Mum is doing very well, but Dad does not press for details. She should be out of intensive care tomorrow morning and should be fit for visiting tomorrow. Tea of chicken pie and after, phone calls from Freda and Mum’s brother in law, Stan (married to her sister Olive) asking after Mum. It seems that Eddie and Doris’s son, Stuart, lives in Huntingdon and has seen my contributions to the local New Year paper feature. Eddie is also Mum’s brother and living close to Olive in Mundesley. I watch a cup tie on TV and the last episode of a spy thriller and then prepare my calendar gifts for posting tomorrow. On a cold night, to bed at 11.00pm. News tonight of a court order to protect the baby child born to Britain’s first surrogate mother – Kim Cotton. She would otherwise have received £14,000. Moscow apologises over the cruise missile incursion into Finland as a ‘possible accident’. The print unions are stepping up industrial action against the newspapers next week, and the AT & T video conferencing experiment in the States is being drastically curtailed.