A funny start to the day as Dells locks Di into the shower room and she is left knocking to be left out! Off to Godmanchester to meet the Mayor, Clerk and other officials for a playing field site visit where I find certain of them to be very uncooperative about saving it but they will put my offer to the Council at their next meeting. The ferry workers are set to return to work but the sacking of their Belfast colleagues is an issue, the Pit Deputies are now starting an overtime ban as the NCB undermine their role and implement flexible working without notice. South African police fire teargas into a church funeral of a 19-year-old shot dead after he accused torture but Comic relief raises £10m
Slept all right and was then awoken by a loud knocking noise. Went downstairs to find that Della had locked Di in the shower room! She is old enough with the humour to do it, but Di gave her a smack for her pains to prevent it happening again. Returned to bed to drink my cup of tea, then showered, shaved and washed my hair in time for breakfast. A routine meal of wheat flakes and milk, but these days I take care in eating them in view of my dentist’s warning about hard wheat grist and the molar cusp that I had previously broken. Read the paper and morning mail and then fed the doves outside. The day had started cold and frosty and then the sun came out and it cheered up a bit. Soon I had to get ready for our trip to Godmanchester and I dressed up for the occasion. We stopped off at Buckden Marina on the way, but they had made little progress on The Lady and had it moored miles away on pontoons. At the Godmanchester recreation ground I met the Town Council, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Town Clerk etc etc. The recreation sub-committee were surprisingly adamant about their plan to scrap the old riverside playground and develop the new one and quite sharp on the subject of trying to save it. There must be some personality or political reason that makes them so dogmatic about it. However, my offer of money to restore the old equipment in situ was welcomed by most of them and the Council decided to consider the offer formally at their next meeting.
It is hard to resist money in that way and the outcome will be that the existing stuff stays, the new site will stay as is, and the riverside playground will prove popular and win the day in the end. You will see. Late and muddy, we trek back to the car and drive back to St Neots to collect Daniel and his friend Gary Skinner, who has come to stay overnight. Off to the Happy Eater, myself still tense over those wrangling Godmanchester councillors. Drove home via the motor accessory shop, where I bought a new foot pump with a pressure gage and a combined 6v/12v battery charger. I then had to pop out again to get a couple of gallons of petrol in a can for the Reliant and I bought some radiator sealer at the same time to treat the Range Rover. We shall see if it will work! Home to a prawn tea and, after putting away the ducks and doves, I worked on, taking out the Reliant battery and putting it on charge, pumping up the tyres and topping up its fuel tank. Then the rest of the evening trying to sort out my office, which had got in quite a state, until it was time for my journal. The news today is of the ferrymen going back to work and of the Belfast men being sacked for taking part in the strike. The NUS are implementing a block on new contract negotiations with the company. A near miss took place in the air over the Kent coast, as two passenger planes flew within 300 yards of each other today. An enquiry will follow, but standards of air traffic control seem to be deteriorating. The coal pit deputies, members of NACODS, have started an overtime ban in protest at the Coal Board ending their monopoly on inspections and putting through changes on flexible working at nil notice. South African police surrounded a church and later fired teargas at the funeral of a 19 year old shot dead 5 days after making accusations of police torture. The Comic Relief charity effort has raised £10 million and England lose another close rugby match – this time to the Welsh.