Warden Abbey, Old Warden, Bedfordshire. The present building is the surviving part of a house built in 1560 on the site of a 12th century Cistercian abbey.
Warden Abbey, Old Warden, Bedfordshire. The present building is the surviving part of a house built in 1560 on the site of a 12th century Cistercian abbey.

Our 19th Anniversary – Celebrating this achievement and then driving off to have a remarkable if rather chilly experience of  visiting Warden Abbey at the behest of Diana’s Aunt Christine, who had hired it for Christmas and then home to see two family films this evening. Wall Street and the dollar are tumbling, the Soviet-supported Afghan troops are fighting a battle with the Mujahideen resistance fighters, Terry Waite has been spotted by satellite and the UK post-Christmas Sales are in full swing

We had a good night and a fair lay in and I caught Di in bed again as I woke up. This anniversary morning we exchanged cards over our morning drinks and Diana’s was one with a badge pinned to it, which I bid her to wear all day. It read ‘Very Important Person’. Soon it was time for breakfast, but not before Della had come to join me in bed by trampolining up and down on it. Dressed for breakfast and Diana had no milk but plenty of frying food left over and so she cooked me a breakfast. I had dressed wearing casual things, but I was reminded that we were to go and visit a cousin of Diana’s, Christine, at Warden Abbey later and so I later had to change again. We copied a video of family film that Christine had requested and hardly had time to change and (in my case, feed the ducks and doves) before Charles and Norma arrived to join us for the journey. We left around midday, with two adults in the front of the Range Rover, three in the back, and the two girls in the boot section. It was an interesting drive to Old Warden and the venue was very interesting. The old 12th Century Abbey Farm building has been restored recently, after being allowed on a long lease by the Whitbread family to ‘Landmarks of Britain’, an organisation that takes over and renovates buildings of historical value that are not suitable for dwellings. Christine had rented it for the week and served us ham and all sorts of other meats, cakes and wines.

There were quite a large number of the Fulton side of the family there. On the way back we stopped at Sandy and saw Chas & Chrisula’s new house, Charles Snr speaking to the owner about the sale details. Once back, we watched some more family videos before Norma & Charles left. This evening two films on the TV. First, ‘National Velvet’, which I watched with Debbie and then a modern production of ‘Tarzan’, with Diana. The news today is of the $ tumbling and then Wall Street slides in sympathy. The currency at one point lost 3 cents against the pound and at last the US Administration talks of it having fallen far enough. They say ‘any fall in the $ would be counter-productive’. But worldwide central banks still seem divided and little stabilising intervention takes place. But still the UK buyers stampede to and fro in the start of the post-Christmas sales. There is a fair battle taking place between Afghan troops (supported by Soviet army units) and the Mujahideen resistance forces. Both sides claim victory in the fight over the access to Khost, but the casualties are evident on both sides. There are reports of Terry Waite being spotted by spy satellite, but US NSA sources say that speculative reports would not help free any Lebanese hostages. The weather was mild again today, but with more of a breeze and this turned to a gusty wind this evening and continue windy tomorrow.