Struggling on with my sore throat and chesty cough, I drove straight to Diss to collect all the Butterfield family from the station and then took them across to Stanton to see Mum, eating sandwiches I had ordered from the site shop and we then visited Redgrave Village Store and spent the next two hours talking to the owner and seeing round the entire building, including the attached cottage next door. We said we would get a valuation and so visited a valuer in Diss who will visit tomorrow and arrive at a value that would be the lowest he could reasonably arrive at and then report for a cost of £60 plus VAT.
Then home to resume work on the Bury FOCUS and keep at it until it was finished with Carole Crompton and her son, Alan, until 2.00am. It was a masterpiece in the end and would give her a real chance to close the gap. The Bonn government agreed to make a very generous offer a one for one exchange rate for East German marks up to a savings limit of 4,000 Eastmarks, A mad-cap scheme to mount the largest-ever takeover bid by offering "junk bonds" to buy BAT in London for £13.5billion has been dropped by Sir James Goldsmith and Chinese Prime Minister, Li Peng, is in Moscow to discuss Sino-Soviet troop reductions on their borders
A dry day today and milder but still cool. My chest was still giving me trouble and I was coughing with a sore throat. I had to go and spend this morning with Freda and Mum and so I had a little lay in and got showered and dressed for the task. I drove straight to Diss to collect all the Butterfield family from the station and then took them across to Stanton to see Mum. We had a nice visit for a couple of hours. I picked up some sandwiches that we had ordered from the site shop and we ate then there for lunch. Before leaving, we had a meeting for half an hour to review the plans for seeing the shop and discussed what we felt the property was worth.
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We got to Redgrave Village Store just on time at 2.00pm and spent the next two hours talking to the owner and seeing round the entire building, including the attached cottage next door. I spent time talking to the owner about the business and what scope there was for expansion and diversification and Alf gave the structure of the building a good going over. I emphasised to the owner that we were literally cash purchasers, but that the value of the bricks and mortar would be our guide for a purchase price. We therefore left it that we would get another valuation for the whole building and then resume discussions with a view to an early negotiation. I then drove the Butterfields into Diss itself to see the valuer. He was out of the office for a while and so we took the chance to walk round the centre of Diss so that Freda, Alf and Chris could see what sort of a place their nearest town would be. Diss is rather disappointing to approach by car as the outskirts are rather spread-out and grotty; but the town centre is very nice and a complete contrast. We briefed the valuer who will visit tomorrow and arrive at a value that would be the lowest he could reasonably arrive at and then report for a cost of £60 plus VAT. I then dropped them off at the station again and then drove home, telephoning mum to let her know what was happening.
This evening, I had to resume work on the Bury FOCUS and keep at it until it was finished, but first there was the job of correcting the other two FOCUS’s for errors and suggestions that had been made. Then Carole Crompton and her son, Alan, arrived and we worked on until literally 2.00am in the morning slowly and carefully creating a very powerful last response to the Tories. It was a masterpiece in the end and will give her a real chance to close the gap, once the voters have read it. It incorporates copies of past FOCUS’s, press cuttings and then emphasises that the local councillor did not stand up effectively against the western by-pass plans and does not live in the ward. Once I had seen them off at the end of the evening, her husband telephoned most worried as he had been staying up worrying about her! I think that they learnt their lesson about deadlines and appreciated the hard work that I had done to put them back on course. I went to bed very tired after leaving a note for Di not to wake me in the morning.
The main news today was of the Bonn government ignoring the advice of the Bundesbank and agreeing to offer a one for one exchange rate for East German marks up to a savings limit of 4,000 Eastmarks which is a good move to keep good faith with the East Germans. A mad-cap scheme to mount the largest-ever takeover bid by offering "junk bonds" has been dropped. It was Sir James Goldsmith trying to buy BAT in London for £13.5billion. Chinese Prime Minister, Li Peng, is in Moscow to discuss Sino-Soviet troop reductions on their borders.