John Shorthouse, the eldest of three boys
John Shorthouse, the eldest of three boys

Leaving our hotel after a poor night with Della and then a visit to video Sam and Francis’s new house in Aylsham before lunch at a Little Chef and then our next visit to my parents at Stanton and home to see my new landscaped riverside garden, pay in £80K of cheques received amongst a deal of mail and messages to sort out. This as the police killing of a 5-year-old boy John Shorthouse by ‘accident’ during a house search and as a guard helps 200 people to safety during a train fire when single-manning of trains is on the agenda.

A poor night and awoken by Daniella at least three times before the morning. Our morning drinks and breakfast as usual and then I tip both waitresses, the nanny and housekeeper £2 each. We then prepare to leave – I pay the bill and Diana packs, whilst the nanny looks after the girls and I read the FT in the lounge. Others are leaving today and Debbie and Daniel say goodbye to the friends they have made. We were startled to hear from the manager that Mount Charlotte Hotels had sold the Hotel Continental to private interests and we hope the character will be preserved to enable us to return next year. We load up the Jaguar and set off, stopping for two full tanks of petrol on the way as our final contribution to the Mundesley economy.  

After a half hour we arrive at Sam and Francis’s new house in Aylesham and chat for a while and are shown around. It is a 19th century form building, more recently surrounded by modern developments, but still retaining its character due to the contours of its garden. Aylesham is a pleasant market town and worthy of a more lengthy visit. On then and to a small and crowded Little Chef restaurant on the Norwich ring road. Then via Diss to Stanton and a pleasant hour or so with my parents, being offered tea and telling them of our experiences in Norfolk, the venue for many of our family holidays in the past. We got out some old photographs and noted the changes that had taken place to Bridge Broad, Wroxham, during this time. I had also stopped at Long Stratton and bought another folding mahogany carpet chair, which is what I call the transitional design between the all wooden steamer or veranda chair and the modern deck chair. Home after and we arrived back at 5.00pm and started the process of unpacking and getting back to normal. I went out and walked around the riverside garden, which had grown well in the moisture of the changeable weather. The doves also fed well and I was pleased to get all 13 ducks fed and put away in the duck house after the 13th had now learned to walk on its bad leg and follow the others. In to my office to open all the mail and nearly £80,000 in cheques to bank at the first opportunity. This evening I caught up with my private mail and reading, but that still leaves the industry journals to do. A long episode in the Japanese novel, Shogun, to watch on the TV, then my journal and the TV news picked up from the teletext. The main story was the sensational killing of a 5 year old boy, John Shorthouse, during the search of his parents council flat in the West Midlands. An un-named officer lent his gun on a bed to look underneath and claimed his gun went off, killing a hidden boy under the bedclothes. Guards helped 200 passengers out of a burning inner-city train today in an incident which is bound to add venom to the arguments over the single manning of trains. The rioting continues in South Africa, even though a further 28 anti-apartheid activists are rounded up. Arrest by police of young striking school children has inflamed passions. Showers today and cool and the same is forecast for tomorrow.