10May1996

My dear folks,

Sunday dawns without. In the lounge, Mavis is sprawled in his customary furry circle on a dining room chair. The couch, which he occupied earlier in the evening, is a bed to Morna Cornell who is taking the weekend off from her AIDS course. She looks good & was thrilled to see her Mum. Bea & Flea are unconscious upstairs. I sat around the table with them on Friday night, sharing a bottle of wine & enjoying the conversation. Because Morna lives in Joburg & Mum in Cape Town, they don’t see much of each other & had a lot to catch up on.

It was one of those rare occasions when I had little to say myself, partly because I enjoyed listening to them & partly because the only way one can get into a Cornell conversation is with a hammer & chisel. There are no natural pauses to speak of. The party returned late last night from an outing of which I shall hear in due course. Following a long BBC day, I had found myself drifting off to sleep in the TV chair after supper & headed instead for an early bed.

One reason I was pooped is that my neighbours below had returned from a birthday dinner the previous evening to continue celebrating in their flat. They like their music on the loud side & the racket drilled effortless through my earplugs & half a sleeping pill. I tolerated it for a while but it was 4.am. & beyond the pale. So I had a quiet word. The girls were suitably remorseful. I returned home from work last night to find a penitent note & a miniature of Chivas Regal. I shall reciprocate with a bottle of wine wishing them quietly happy returns. The one advantage I have in looking after flats in the house is to be able to write the leases & choose the tenants & thunderous 4 a.m. celebrations are totally out of bounds in Victorian houses with their wooden floors & flimsy walls. We had a student once - son of wealthy parents - who’d drive us mad with boom boom music into the early hours. He didn’t last.

My schedule for the next couple of weeks looks thus: I work today, again on Thur 16, Fri17, then on the nights of Mon 20, Tues 21, Fri 24 & Sat 25, Mon 27 & Tues 28. On the 29th, I barely have time to return home from work & grab a bag before jumping on a plane to Portugal. Jones I have contacted the Slades & arranged to bring forward our stay at the farm by a day in order to fit in with Rob & Carol’s plans. In-between, of course, Cathy & Anita arrive Tuesday to hit London just as hard as Bea & Flea have been doing. I tell you that I’m impressed by granny power. These girls are serious visitors.

Thank you Ann for your note. Yes, enough snow for now. You’ve had a share. And give some serious thought to a London visit. I get back from Portugal on June 17 & can highly recommend a visit to take in the London shows. Speaking of which, it turned out that my booking for Riverdance is problematic in that only 2 of the 3 seats are together. I phoned the theatre to see if I could do better on another day. Sorry, I was told, we’re now taking bookings well into June & July. Hot cakes got nothing on them. So, if you want to visit London, let me know soon! The season is upon on us.

Jones, thank you too. Bernie & I have been sharing your faxes - & Cathy’s for that matter - with equal pleasure. One of my aims is to sit down for a morning & distil some of your more lyrical passages for the benefit of the rest of the family. Bea told me, after reading the last one, that I was very lucky to have you.

Blessings..................T