Daniel did not come back for dinner, and calls revealed his friends had missed their meals as well, all us parents were suspecting the worse had happened
Daniel did not come back for dinner, and calls revealed his friends had missed their meals as well, all us parents were suspecting the worse had happened

I had a useful and productive day but then a spoilt evening worrying over Daniel, who had missed a meal and failed to be there as promised so that Di and I could not go out for our anniversary evening's entertainment.

Earlier, Debbie helped me to take the balcony lights down, storing the bulbs away as I removed them and the consequent wiring and then, when Daniel did not come back for dinner, and calls revealed his friends had missed their meals as well, all us parents were suspecting the worse had happened. They had been in Bedford amusement arcade after all!

An unsettled night but I got some sleep in the end and was then awake early to see our Christmas Lights for the last morning this holiday. Today was mild again but quite breezy. I enjoyed a large Sunday fried breakfast and then Debbie helped me to take the balcony lights down, storing the bulbs away as I removed them and the consequent wiring. I spent the rest of the morning doing some maintenance jobs of the house: I adjusted some balcony and inside doors, replaced an outside light bulb and then joined the family for a nice lunch of roast turkey which is good value at the moment - £1.07p per pound!

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I then got down to some administration this afternoon, catching up on a range of important correspondence and ignoring a number of incoming 'phone calls from people who cannot give their councillor some peace on a Sunday. No Daniel for tea which was just annoying to begin with but then he did not return as arranged to look after the girls so that Diana and I could go out to have our anniversary evening's entertainment. We called Jason Chamber's mother to find out that he had not returned for a cooked dinner as expected at 5.30pm and then we really began to worry. Further calls to Steven Hick's mother revealed that she had a drive full of cars and we worked out that four of them were out in the car of Gary Brocks. I got his number from the directory and then, from his mother, his car details and registration number and by this time I decided to check with the police to see if that car had been involved in any incident. Now we had four worried families and no information and there was nothing I could do except wait for news of them.

Having all of my correspondence from today to post and hand-deliver, I spent my evening doing so with the car telephone handy whilst Di put the girls to bed. Later, the boys turned up from a visit to a Bedford amusement arcade with Daniel claiming to have forgotten that he had not eaten tea and that he was baby-sitting tonight and also not knowing the time which was not satisfactory. I tore into him, and he was left feeling bad which was upsetting for me, but it is for his own good. Diana is nervous these days after Della's accident and can hardly drive herself for worry and she ended up more nervous still tonight instead of having a relaxing evening. By this time, it was too late for Diana and I to go out and so I just updated my journal and went to bed.