29June1995

London: 29th June 1995
My dear folks,

Especially my dear mother who, I hope, returns home today from hospital with the rocky recent past well and truly behind her. Mum, our thoughts have been much with you. Thank you Cathy for your fax for Barbara which I have passed on to her. And thank you Jones for your fax of yesterday. I got home late, yet again, from a complicated afternoon of packaging and subtitling an interview in Japanese with two survivors of the bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

My attention was demanded first by Fats & then the thirsty flowers & then phone messages & correspondence. So this fax has had to wait. Cathy & Jones will be aware that I discovered on Tuesday when I was buying a new bike that I ought to be covered by Barclaycard for the loss of the previous one under their 100 day cover policy. I knew nothing of it. The cycle shop owner brought it to my attention. He couldn't believe that I had not seen the relevant TV commercial showing Rowan Atkinson emerging from a souk in Egypt with a carpet, the end of which had caught fire. I confessed that I had not (as I always turn the sound off during commercials & ignore them.) At his prompting, I phoned Barclaycard who thought I should be covered. Since we're talking about £370, I was heartily relieved (& slipped the cycle man £20 for a good round at the pub). The appropriate form arrived yesterday & I spent a careful hour completing it & adding a letter.

Jones, I have ordered another prescription for you & written to Sandra Horne to pass on the info on cycle hire...thanks. Also a friend of Rachel's, Celia Clarkson, phoned to confirm a booking from Oct. 10 - 17 in Casa 2, subject to ticket availability. If the bank has transferred the cash as requested, there ought to be plenty available for the wages bill today. Re the French winter rentals, clever computer has searched his memory & retrieved this paragraph for me: "the (inclusive) price would be 50,000 escudos a month from October to March. The spring season starts in April when the cost would be 55,000, & May would be 60,000."

It was a scorcher yesterday & there's another due today before temps wane slightly over the weekend. Too hot for me in truth...the kind of sticky heat that leaves one limp & disinclined to work. The TV weathermen add sunburn warnings to the ends of forecasts, giving the approximate time after which one is in danger of burning.

Of course, we are bombarded every second with politics, the one subject I have managed so far to avoid. The entry into the Tory leadership contest of former Welsh Secretary, John Redwood, has thoroughly upset calculations. The list for challengers to Major closes today & the 1st round takes place on Tuesday. Eligible are some 327 Tory MPs, described by some, & with good reason, as the world's most treacherous constituency.

The kind of rain-dance being performed by people who are trying to appear loyal to Major while preparing for a 2nd round challenge (especially the two Michaels, Portillo on the right & Heseltine on the left) defies description. Portillo swore undying loyalty to Major in a radio interview this morning but found it "unhelpful" to confirm reports that he was busy setting up his own campaign HQ. Overweening ambition! All is vanity, as the poet wrote, and he was spot on!