A mild but wet day busy working outside and then attending to family matters before taking the girls off to Huntingdon as it was their half-term holiday where they shopped after coffee together and I then researched Manorial history for Hail Weston and Little Paxton in the library and local record office and then Diana met up with friends as I installed a power point and floodlight to Bill’s shed and had a sea food tea. A murder trial sentencing for a family inheritance killer today but the main news stories were of political turmoil in Mozambique, UK Government changes to benefit eligibility designed to discourage claimants and of the deaths of three women in a Newcastle bus crash just after the service was deregulated.
Another very deep sleep and reluctant again to wake. Decided to shampoo my hair this morning before breakfast. Opted for marmalade and toast today and went up just to bring down Della, who had some with me. She has been missing this first meal of the day lately and declining to come down, but I put a stop to this nonsense. Sat in the playroom reading my paper and mail after, as the girls played together. Then up to clean my teeth and to the office, where I filled in some NS Investment account forms for the children’s trusts and put them in successive envelopes for routing around my trustees and back. Out to the doves, who were very hungry after little feed yesterday and helped Pete to get a ladder for cleaning away some hawthorn growth from the roof of our inner garage. Then to get the car out and take the girls off to Huntingdon.
Once parked, we had a coffee break and I left them to shop, as I made for the local history section of the reference library. Read a number of books on Huntingdonshire, noting references to Little Paxton and then traced the ownership of the two Little Paxton Lordships in the Kelly Directories. Also followed Hail Weston for Nigel Smith, but could not get to a date more recent than 1940 for either. Met the girls back at the Wimpy for lunch, where the place was crowded with half-term holiday school children and the service was slow. A little more time in the library, then all home to Little Paxton. Di took the girls to her friends for their Tuesday meeting and I changed and went out to work on the electrics in Bill’s shed. I installed a power point and then the floodlight, which will cater well for our bonfire party. The morning was quite mild today, but the rain teamed down again this afternoon and the site cleared for the games lawn is very boggy. Tea of cockles and prawns and then out to feed the ducks and put them away in the dark, before putting away the Range Rover. I tested its lights and I am sure its fog lights are not working. In to write up my journal and watch the TV news. The main story was of the sentencing of Jeremy Bomber at Chelmsford Crown Court to 25 years for murdering five members of his family, to try to secure an inheritance. He thought he had managed to put the blame on his sister, but relatives forced the police into looking again at the case. The government have announced new stricter questions for the unemployed when claiming benefit. The idea is to put them off and make them feel uncomfortable, though the government deny it. Prince Charles has stung building developers for ignoring the possibilities of reversing inner city decay and choosing instead to develop green fields. Three women were killed and 39 others injured in a Newcastle bus crash. It had only been operating for a few days, its company starting under the new de-regulated rules. Mozambique buried its dead President today and Zimbabwe attracted the hostility of the right-wing Mozambique rebels by pledging that they would not be allowed to succeed