Linda's girls christenings seemed to be something of a photo-opportunity
Linda's girls christenings seemed to be something of a photo-opportunity

The day of Linda and Ian Richardson’s rather irreverent family christenings after a morning’s work on the gardens for me and studying for exams by the children and then this evening writing and hearing news of the horrific coach crash in France. Political manoeuvrings in the centre of British politics leaves the LibDems in central stage and the demise of a major financial services group hits the headlines

It was a bit colder last night and this kept me awake with cold feet until I put some bedclothes back on the bed after they had been discarded in the warmer weather. It had become fresher and more unsettled and we hoped for more rain for the garden. Today was the day for the christening of the children of Linda and Ian Richardson but, because this was not until this afternoon, this still left this morning for me to cut the lawns. I cut the main lawns this morning and did the edging at the same time. They had not grown much but had become straggly and covered in seeds, weeds and other rubbish and so they looked a lot better for my effort. The new Koi is tiny, at 4ins, compared with the rest and is so nervous of them that it hides under the plant baskets all the time.

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I worked on after lunch but by this time the weather had broken, and the rain was falling very steadily. I just serviced the tools in the shed and oiled them ready for the next time which was something that Pete never did. Daniel washed both cars this morning and thus made himself useful and then worked four hours this afternoon on his last-minute revision for his first "A"-level exam tomorrow. Debbie was also working steadily today for her exams which also start next week. Later this afternoon, we all went over to St James Church for the Christening. Diana and I were the godparents for Emma, and we made the necessary pledges in the service but Emma and Holly giggled throughout (and Linda occasionally) which was rather unfortunate. Peter Lewis conducted a particularly good service with humour as well as reverence and then we had the spectacle of event-photography gone mad. Linda seemed to be treating the whole thing as a photo-opportunity and we were held up inside and outside the church and again at the house; with the welfare of the guests as a poor second concern. There were no introductions or ceremony at the house, the girls opened their christening presents without supervision so that they did not know who had given what and we all sat and stood around impatiently for our food and drinks as the endless photo-calls went on and on. We were pleased to get away at 5.00pm and I was left wondering whether they had really entered the spirit of the thing at all. Linda just wore shorts as her form of dress and the girls were in sailor suits. It was still showering this evening and so I worked until late catching up on my journal to leave me time tomorrow for other things. I was very tired and ready for bed in the end. The main news tonight is of a double-decker coach crash near Paris where eleven Britons were killed as a British coach sped off the motorway. The tyre blew out at 80mph and this has opened the whole subject of motorway speed restrictions for coaches. On the continent, lower speed limits apply whereas here there is just the 70mph limit which applies to coaches as well as cars. The SDP formed and run by Dr David Owen has met and decided to wind itself up as a national political party which will make life considerably easier for the Liberal Democrats. The final straw was their result in the Bootle by-election, where they finished seventh behind the "Monster Raving Loony Party" of "Screaming Lord Such". Now there is speculation about whether David Owen would join either the Labour party or the Liberal Democrats; but I do not think that he would be welcome in either in view of his troublesome nature. I was a founder member of the SDP which had been formed to "break the mould of British politics" and consisted of Labour Party rebels who felt that party was going too far to the left. Now it has changed its policies and the SDP is no longer necessary. Frantic weekend moves to try to save the B & C financial services group have failed and administrators have been appointed. It will rank as one of the largest UK corporate collapses and liquidations and was caused by the debts of acquiring Atlantic Computer Leasing.