Monday 19 August 2019

I spent most of Friday doing client work. I currently have two in, and both need to be finished this week. But I also did quite a lot of admin work on the Richard Cadbury book.

I’m meeting Richard Cadbury’s great-great-granddaughter on Thursday of this week, and so we had a chat about that on the telephone. I’m also hoping to arrange an appointment in London to see some more primary research material that belongs to the family. I spoke to someone at the library in Friends House in London and they’re coming back to me. I just had to confirm my request by email.

The other thing I’m trying to arrange is another bank meeting to finalise Dad’s estate. I left a message on their answerphone, but they haven’t come back to me yet. The material I needed from the solicitor for this arrived on Friday and I did promise myself that as soon as I had it I would make the appointment.

We had a lovely weekend. On Saturday I popped my horse-racing cherry. We live just ten minutes from Doncaster Racecourse, yet I’ve not been in all the time I’ve been up here (fifteen years). Or ever, in fact. But on Saturday we spent a sunny afternoon correcting that. They were all flat races, and the first horse we backed (Poet’s Pride) came in third (we had an each-way bet).

In all, we had three thirds and a second. One filly I fancied came in last, and another gelding I fancied came in first (but he was favourite, so we didn’t bother placing any bets on him). But regardless of the outcome, I really enjoyed it.

We popped home to spend some time with the dog, then were back at the racecourse by 5pm for a James concert. They’re a bit … “R.E.M.” for me and I only recognised two songs. But they’re one of the poet’s favourite bands and he had lots of fun singing along and dancing.

I loved going to the races, but I didn’t think it was a very good venue for a concert. There’s not a lot of room where the view’s quite good, there are too many different surfaces, and the only soft drink we could get was full-fat Coke (outside – there may have been some inside, but that would mean missing part of the concert). With the sugar tax now in place on soft drinks, with it being a family venue, and with the current drive to drive drink-driving down, I thought that was very poor. Very poor.

Sunday was spent shopping and visiting. I needed to get a business-like outfit that fits for this Thursday and we had our weekly shopping to do. So we left the dog with the poet’s mum, because he’d been left on his own the previous day and we didn’t want to leave him on his own again.

Baldy had to have her sour crop squeezed twice at the weekend. By the end of yesterday, she was feeding herself again, pecking at green grapes and lettuce. She still sounds a bit squishy this morning, but she’s interested again and not sulking in a corner of the greenhouse.

This morning I have more client work to do. I managed some new writing on Friday so I had something to read out at the writers’ group this afternoon. But I’ve had an apology from Pauline so it’s unlikely anyone else will show today. I still have to be there, though, just in case they do. So I’ll take some work to read out, just in case, but I’ll also take some editing work.

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