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Up early to get ahead on a warm and blustery day to complete my chores and liaise with my officer fitters and decorators before two big meetings. At the first I am collected by furnisher Jim Brittain for lunch to address the St Neots Rotary on the topic of "Representing the Community" and then this evening for the HDC Finance and General Purposes Committee where the burgeoning collection costs of the Poll Tax was contentious. Ex-premier Ted Heath's humanitarian visit to Iraq is delayed until later in the week
It was going to be a busy day at the start of a busy week and so I was up early and doing an hour's work before breakfast. My desk had become quite cluttered whilst I had been working outside in the last few days and, with the office equipment people coming to complete the remedial work, I had to get the surfaces clear. After breakfast, I carried on working in my office until the fitters arrived about mid-day, preparing a lunchtime speech for the St Neots Rotary Club. I had forgotten this until looking at my diary this morning and then chose the topic of "Representing the Community".
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Final preparations and aftermath of the very successful Norma's 60th party, with Di’s mother duly feted and 20-odd guests well looked after with drinks and food, enjoying and appreciating the splendid venue of The Hayling View, conservatory and gardens. I could only flop down in the lounge utterly exhausted after several very tiring and demanding days
I was very tired this morning and loath to get up. I think that I am actually suffering from exhaustion in the true sense of the word. Up eventually and to shower and wash my hair before getting dressed for breakfast. To my chores afterwards and then to help prepare for the party that we were hosting at The Hayling View today. Though late, it was in honour of Di's mother's 70th birthday and all her family members had been invited and were attending. My job was to prepare and serve the drinks which was quite difficult when twenty-odd people were coming; each with their own varied tastes.
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Apart from writing my journal early and late, the entire hot, windy and arduous day was spent gardening. After the fish, doves and conservatory chores, I prevailed upon Ibbetts in Great Paxton to get my lawn-mower handle welded and bought a two-stroke blower with motor and impeller that helps with gathering the leaves. I clipped back climbers on the garages to facilitate the decorator’s task and then resumed work on the lawns until dark
Another hot and arduous day in the garden. I was awake very early and had my morning drink with Diana before spending some time on my journal before breakfast. I was hungry and pleased that Di decided to serve a fried breakfast today rather than tomorrow and the girls were pleased as well. Breakfast over, I tended the fish, doves and conservatory, cleared out the swimming pool filter and then went out to Ibbetts in Great Paxton to try to get my lawn-mower handle welded. I was relieved that they could oblige me by doing it while I waited, and I then decided to buy a "blower" to help with the leaves. This is a tool with a two-stroke motor and impeller that directs air along the ground to gather up leaves and rubbish into a heap. Another attachment then turns the machine into a vacuum cleaner that can then such all of the debris up into a bag!
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Another warm and physically-demanding day raking laws and gathering up debris before managing some lawn mowing before the mower handle broke. I was already tired from my Horning exertions and was hard pressed to work as hard at Paxton.
The Prime Minister's speech to the Tory Conference was a sickening spectacle, script written for effect and stage-managed to an appalling degree. Major’s City honeymoon with the ERM came to an abrupt end as the FT100 index had already fallen back. My photo and Onsite story was in the papers today
Staying on at Heronshaw, then meant that I had less time to get the gardens right at The Hayling View for the family party the following weekend. I spent the morning raking hordes of fallen leaves from the front lawn and also liaising with the decorators to get the painting of the house finished off properly. I also had to return some telephone calls as the Onsite story gets picked up locally. The lawn-raking was quite an onerous job as the good season led to record amounts of fruits and nuts on the trees such as beech nuts, acorns and the Gaul-fly mutations forming oak-apple that are endemic at the moment. Raking all of these things up was very hard work. I carried on after lunch, raking the lawns by the river and then using the besom on the games lawn until it was quite late in the afternoon by the time I was ready to use the lawn mowers. I mowed the games lawn first but it was quite dry and bumpy as the ground was still parched after the dry spring and summer.
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