16November1996

Saturday 16 November
My dear folks,

Not the best start to my day. My laptop started playing silly buggers, failing to load my anti-virus programme & refusing to load Windows. I tried several re-installations before removing the anti-virus programme from the disk. Laptop works again but one is left with a niggling anxiety. I have emailed the manufacturers of the anti-virus programme & hope to get a response while I’m in RSA. Life was ever thus. Then I had a word with Jones who said she’d heard about the board of Canadian Airlines resigning. This was more than I’d heard, so I spent 20 minutes on the Net catching up with events on the news wires. The story got so interesting that I did a search on the Canadian papers & had a good read of both the Calgary Herald & the Calgary Sun. Holy smoke, boet! Talk about a heavy scene!!! Strength to your arm.

Before I get off the subject, let me tell you that I also listened to a Voice of America radio bulletin which I downloaded on the computer. It was perfectly clear. Only snag was that it took five minutes to download. BBC OnLine are trying for something called Real Audio that can be heard fractions of a second after it is broadcast - in so called real time. Lots of radio stations in Britain & the US are now offering it. When you have a good connection on a fast system, it’s almost CD quality. In less ideal circumstances, it’s like short-wave at its worst. The expectation is that as high quality ISDN phone lines become more common, one will be able to watch instant video replays on computers as well as listening to near simultaneous audio. In brief, before we’re any of us much older, the family computer, tv set, radio, video, clock, calculator, typewriter & filing system will be one & the same bit of hi-tech machinery.

Lastly, I cycled over to Kensington to buy myself a tiny digital radio, a little Sony that slips into the pocket & plays either through ear-phones or a small speaker. I saw them on display at the computer show a few weeks ago & they’ve just become available. Because the audio signal is digital rather than analogue, it’s almost crystal clear. One can walk or cycle around with virtually no interference to mar the reception. British television is also to go digital shortly, a development that will allow the establishment, quite literally, of hundreds of new stations. The BBC is ploughing millions into the new technology as well as into a new computer system to handle it.

That’s all by the by. It’s being a quiet news weekend in the UK, unless you’re prepared to get excited over the gay service at Southwark Cathedral. It’s whipping the fervent straight faithful into a frenzy of indignation over the “celebration of homosexuality”. Gay activists defend their right to worship with equal vigour & cries of “God made us this way.” Poor old God. I don’t think your average Joe gives a tuppenny, but the issue causes the Anglican church no end of soul-searching, the more so as its clergy are liberally sprinkled with gay priests & even bishops - some of them openly living with their partners.

Have had words also with Mum & with Bren. I gathered from Bren, Mum, that he had spoken to the estate agent concerned about the generous access she had granted the buyer prior to the completion of the sale. Jud will be popping around tomorrow to say hi & I’m expecting Freglet lunchtimish. He’ll be looking after the flat & the fat feline in my absence. All of a sudden, it’s very close. Think I’ll celebrate with a wee voddy & coke. Thinking of you all.

Blessings
T