12September1995

London: 12th September 1995
My dear folks,

Dawn is being winched up across the eastern sky. At least it was when I sat down to begin this letter to you an hour ago. But I took a quick deviation to check on any incoming email & then to cancel my newly opened internet account with Microsoft Exchange (one of the facilities offered with Windows95). I had signed on as an experiment to see how Microsoft’s service compared with the BBC Networking Club’s. In short, it was easy to use, glittering & well appointed, like the foyer of a fancy hotel. But it was also hugely more expensive (per hour connected), unable to provide full Internet access & slow to download its flashy index of facilities. All this I explained on the electronic resignation form provided. The BBC Service, by comparison, is largely do-it-yourself - with much fiddling & frustration to download & operate the latest (often unstable) software. But it’s cheap & it’s the real thing.

This is not going to be a computer letter. Even the most fervent cyberfreaks have a sense of the limited appetite of “ordinary people” for the detail of the latest developments. But I ought to tell you that I have seen one of the VT editors at work amusing himself between times on his laptop with a variety of computer games. Several looked rather appealing, as I confided to him. He had “borrowed” them from someone’s BBC computer & was only too happy to transfer them on to a floppy disc for my use. At least a couple are just as addictive as FreeCell, which is very bad news. It does fascinate me though that in computer software the human race has discovered a species which can be duplicated painlessly and effortlessly & at virtually no cost. I am concerned with the philosophic rather than the economic & legal implications. This is the 20th Century equivalent of the miracle of the loaves & the fishes. It can only be a matter of time before computers discover how to replicate themselves. Life could then become very interesting.

I had an excellent night’s sleep. It’s so nice to wake refreshed at dawn rather than unrefreshed at dusk as I’ve done for the past few days. But the last of my nightshifts is now behind me - for September at least. I stayed awake after getting back from work yesterday morning. The flat & my in-tray (a kind of metaphor for the study) got some badly needed attention. In fact, I was rather proud of the accumulated washings, ironings, phonings & letters that I got through in the course of the day. I fell asleep instantly last night but found myself going through a cycle of weird dreams & reawakenings & eventually resorted to a rare half-sleeping tablet. I don’t like using them. But since my last box hit its use-by date (2 years after issue) before I finished it, I don’t feel too concerned.

One of the tasks I accomplished in the course of the day was to book flights to Germany for Christmas when Brendan, Conal & Micaela will be joining the Gohdes family. The rota - quite incredibly - indicated that I was off-duty from Dec 23 to 26, a gift from the gods if ever there was one. I made a couple of check calls to Cathy & a German travel agent to tie up details - and we’re booked - in time to get two of the few cheap tickets available over the period. We arrive at Frankfurt airport on the first available flight out of Heathrow which should bring us in shortly after Brendan & co have landed. Happiness! Before that, I shall be flying down to Portugal for 5 nights on 28 Sept - for a “well-earned rest”.

1900
It’s a red sky dusk, more often seen at the Quinta than through the study window in London and all the more appreciated for that. Somewhere, the day went. The morning went mainly on phone calls to travel agents on behalf of Chris Jones, our nephew in Guyana, who wants to fly between London and Cape Town at the end of the year when a million other people are trying to do the same. The rest was devoted to writing letters & filing the mountain of paper that had built up.

I had an early lunch on what Mr Sainsbury declared to be Nasi Goreng (I’d always wondered how it tasted - and its’ spicy but nothing special) & then cycled off to the bank & for some exercise. I thought I’d take a sniff around suburbs north of Regent’s Park. Eventually, I found an interesting bookshop up in West End Lane & bought a couple of books. Then I sat down in the adjacent wine bar with a large cappuccino to start reading them (one on the Internet, the best I’ve come across, & the other a selection of essays by the [newly remarried] Stephen Hawking).

A bosomy waitress wandered across to talk about the Internet because she had a computer - she didn’t know what sort - and was interested. She’d never heard of a modem. I advised her to find a friend who was hooked up and spend an hour seeing what she thought of it. The sun was shining peacefully all over the patio & much else when I returned. Mavis & I sat out there for a while, then I went to sleep in the sun on the landing.

Jones, to answer a couple of the questions you posed. The Coulsons arrive about 1900 on Monday the 25th. So there should be no problem with an extended stay for the other guests. Harry Griggs called today and asked if he and Barbara could come and stay in October. I said yes. I suggested between the 6th and the 24th when I am not working nights & he said that would be fine. So you’d better keep your hostess hand in. I tried to fax you page 1 this morning early but the fax didn’t seem to be hooked up. Here we go again.