Spent this morning meeting senior council officials at North Norfolk District Council to get briefings on their work. A nice bunch of people with a genuine commitment to public service. This afternoon I met a group of local Cromer crab fishermen. They are very worried about the effect on their trade of the proposed wind farm off Cromer. But the big news of the day was my weigh-in - a massive 18 stone 2! Aaaaaagh! Unbeknown to me I was weighed in by a professional dietician who proceeded to give me my orders for my diet. It's going to be a hard four months... This evening drove through a blizzard to the Fakenham Conservatives AGM. One of their committee used to own the farm in Stibbard which my mother and her parents farmed in the 1950s. Small world. Funniest moment of the day was when I walked into the office to overhear the end of a telephone conversation. My colleague said to the caller, would he like to speak to me as I had just walked into the room. He declined saying he had to go and walk the dogs and put the phone down. Apparently he'd called to say what on earth qualified me to stand for parliament and wasn't the picture of me in the newspaper terrible. And he finally exploded: "And what about those dreadful dimples!!!" Quirk of nature, mate.