A good selection of GCSE exam results for Daniel as he passes English and is all set for taking science subjects at A-level. I bought him a new stereo hi-fi as a reward. Some progress in my parish council dog fouling campaign as we are promised more support and an opportunity to raise the matter at the next meeting. Working very late this evening typing up and printing out our September FOCUS copy as I heard news of the UK suffering record trade deficit which triggered a large fall on the stock exchange with the housing market under threat.
I was sound asleep when Di brought up tea this morning. Up to my breakfast of croissants, marmalade and butter and I opened a variety of mail of little consequence. Had a couple of hours at my desk before it was time to take Daniel to Kimbolton School to pick up his GCSE results. He had an ‘A’ in physics, ‘B’ in chemistry and the rest ‘Cs’ and ‘Ds’ each side of the benchmark ‘O’ level pass. In all, he had six ‘O’ level equivalents, including his mathematics previously taken and a seventh additional maths A/O. Best news of all was the fact he got an English ‘C’, which made up for getting one or two less passes in other subjects. The strength in chemistry and weakness in history etc, meant that he should now take maths, physics, chemistry to be logical and he does not feel too keen on the idea, but it will be for the best. All off to the Little Chef for lunch, then I took Daniel into town and bought him a new stereo HiFi for passing English and being resigned to chemistry.
Pat Low opposite brought over some chemistry and economics papers and I will show Daniel how much the latter is based on essays – his weak point. This morning, first thing, I had biked round to Graham Mulchinook and signed him up in support of my dog fouling campaign. Helen Young had spoken to Mr Long, another Parish Councillor, and I checked with Alf Couzens and established that I will be able to bring up all the aspects of By Laws under the agenda for discussion anew, which is good. I may yet swing the vote in my favour, but it has been a tough job. Later on, I worked on my word processor, typing in and printing out the September FOCUS copy, which was hard going. We have a common centre-page ‘Council Matters’ section, with customised outer, with the more local District/Parish/Town news. Worked all evening and until after midnight on it, only finishing the Little Paxton version and getting to bed by 1.00am. News today is of a record UK balance of trade deficit, with the government’s economic policy under pressure again. Bank interest rates rise by 1% in response and the stock exchange suffers a large fall. Mortgage payments will rise in October and that will not do the housing market and over-stretched borrowers any good. Chancellor Lawson says that interest rates will have to stay up for some time, and in the absence of tax rises to aid the monetary policy, he will be only too right. England’s new test cricket team make a promising start against Sri Lanka, bowling them out for less than 200 and then being 50 for 1 in reply.