23February1995

London: 23 February 1995
My dear folks

I have just returned home after a brisk 2km walk up to Swiss Cottage. I meant to have coffee at Louis' and a leisurely perusal of the newspaper. Instead, I had a wander around the shops & bought a couple of CDs, including Faure's Requiem, which I love. Our cassette version recently stretched and became quite unlistenable to. The shops had a glum look to them. Several were empty, looking for tenants. The miserable & the homeless littered the pavements, begging for a living. I generally buy a magazine (The Big Issue) sold by homeless people, partly because I know its sales help to give many of them a new start (and partly, I suspect, to salve my conscience.) It's not bad reading. Deals with social issues mainly, but also what's on and what's not.

It's my day off. Sweet luxury! The last two days were really heavy. Yesterday finished at 2200 after a 3 hour meeting to work out how to resolve the abrasive relations that have developed between the news teams and the current affairs teams under the new dispensation. I was absolutely knackered by the time I got back. "Cream-crackered", as Jones likes to put it. But it was a useful meeting. And since the most awful squall blew up earlier in the evening, thrashing rain and sleet against our windows and knocking out the electricity supplies over parts of London, I couldn't have cycled home earlier anyhow. I've a fairly heavy schedule over the next few days. But that's fine. Holidays loom!

This morning, my (Dutch) neighbour and I went shopping at Sainsburys. It was absolutely chockers. Trolleys were nose to tail inside, largely driven by pensioners who are bussed in for the occasion. I try to make allowances, but it really strains my patience when people park themselves in the middle of the aisle while they gawk around, blocking all passage. We emerged into the morning - quite a pleasant one - with great sighs of relief.

I was joined on Monday evening by a former colleague who had been with an Afrikaans newspaper group in London while I was with the SABC, and who subsequently joined the SABC himself and rose rapidly to become the link man with the political parties, everything from the Herstigtes to the PAC. Quite a challenge, as he conceded. He has just left, disillusioned, to join a big oil company. That's not to say that he was exactly "illusioned" beforehand. But he managed. He put an enormous effort into trying prepare the new SABC to become an independent, commercially-minded organisation, only to find his masters over-ruling him & trying for the subsidised route. We had a long conversation at the Turkish restaurant over the new South Africa. I was interested to hear the fate my former all-powerful Broederbond colleagues. Suffice it to say that early retirements are the order of the day. I felt thankful that I left when I did.

I have been putting my newly acquired computer skills to work, relabelling much of my correspondence under a new filing system and experimenting with great satisfaction in the area (DOS) in which I'd had little previous experience. I envy the old hands (who got their computer education before the advent of the user-friendly WINDOWS system). They're like drivers who also know what's under the bonnet & how to tweak the engine. I'm getting there. It's just taking a little time. Enough for today!