10February1995

London: 10 February 1995
My dear folks,

I have been dashing off separate notes to Germany, Canada and Portugal these last few days (on matters German, Canadian and Quintassential). Here's an all-rounder. So forgive any repetition. I have secured leave for the first three weeks of March (hooray!!) and have booked a flight to (yup, you guessed) Faro. Jones is pleased. I am more pleased. She is still camping there pending the completion of MCP and it's my intention to spend at least a week travelling, maybe skiing if the conditions are right.

To get the leave, I had to squeeze the rota people a little and they squeezed right back. I begin a series of 7 nights out of 8 tonight. You may be spared my faxes for the next week. In the meanwhile, I have gone on (yet another) diet (of sorts). I decided that I really didn't like my tummy. It was starting to hinder me. So, for a few weeks at least, I'm off booze and other obvious fatteners. I've read enough articles and gone on enough diets to know that most people just put back on what they take off. But I have to take it off anyhow. It's too depressing to go around in braces. Feels not me!

I had a long and cheering fax from Iris this morning, as well as a brief chat with her. It was heartening to hear the happiness in her voice. Trish earlier sent me a long email account of exactly what had happened - not one to inspire confidence in the local medical profession. Meanwhile, it's a case of Give Thanks.

I have posted off to Cath a copy of ENCARTA for her spanking new CD-ROM and await her verdict. At the same time, I bought myself a CD called SIM CITY. It's a game (so to speak) in which you design and create a city within a budget and try to overcome the frighteningly realistic problems that crop up as you try to administer it. If you get it right, you're qualified to become mayor of London. It rewards you for good design and punishes you for bad. Amazing old world, isn't it?

It's better than the real world outside. Teachers and nurses have just got their annual pay awards, well under inflation, and are shrieking blue murder; so are the school governors and parents as their shrinking school budgets force them to fire teachers and enlarge classes. Senior civil servants, on the other hand, are pleased to be able to earn up to 27% more. The announcements coincided with a report from The Rowntree Foundation which concluded that the gap between the Haves and the Have Nots was the biggest for 50 years and widening. I find it scary - as a Have. It's like watching a ship lean further and further over and wondering where's the limit. Government ministers spend as much time on sleaze damage-limitation & infighting over Europe as running the country.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair smiles and prepares to become prime minister at the next election. I have never voted Labour in my life, but I might just - even if I live to regret it. (Much coverage here of the Boesak Hands in the Till saga - although he protesteth vigorously. Never managed to keep his fly zipped or his fingers in his pockets, that guy!)

Outside, the skies are grey as we prepare for another weekend of rain. To be honest, that's fine by me. The pattering on the roof as I sleep (or try to) is reassuring and makes one grateful for a cosy nest. I shall settle down shortly for a couple of hours ahead of tonight's shift. Meanwhile, I'm off to the local pool for a few lengths. I need the exercise and I find I'm only too ready for a kip on my return.