17January1997

Friday January 17
My dear folks,

Rachmaninov’s Third, the Rach Three, as it was described in awesome tones by the piano teacher in “Shine”, fills the lounge & drifts through to the study. Jones found the tape while we were putting away the pile of tapes that had accumulated messily around the cassette player. She admonished me for failing to return tapes to the tape store each time I played one. Jones fails to understand that this is a genetic inheritance which I’m as powerless to change as I am to reverse the pull of gravity. And when I explained that I did put the tapes away regularly, but only after when there were half a dozen together, she waved away my explanation like the pope dismissing Galileo’s foolish ideas about the solar system. Such are the trials of domestic life.

By the way, if you haven’t taken my advice and seen “Shine” yet, make a point of doing so at the first opportunity. It’s a great film. We stopped over in a music shop on the way home from the cinema to buy a CD of the “Rach Three.” There was a rendition by the man himself, David Helfgott, but as it cost three times as much as an alternative version, Jones suggested we take the cheaper item - which we did. The following day Judy Cornell called to say that a CD with music from the movie was being given away with copies of the Guardian newspaper. So I rushed out & bought one. Indeed, she spoke the truth. So we now have several versions.

Although I have gradually been building up my stock of CDs, we don’t have a CD player in the lounge. The only one in the flat is the CD Rom in the study. I don’t believe CDs had been invented when I acquired our faithful trio of radio, cassette player & amplifier & wired them up to speakers we inherited somewhere along the line. I dragged Jones into a couple of stores on Tottenham Court Road last Saturday - when I went to look for computer software - to look at CD players going on the sale. But there was nothing that took her fancy, not at the advertised prices anyhow, so we returned home without one.

I took an hour to hunt around the computer fair (staged in a nearby hall each Saturday) for Money 97 (required for Barclays soon-to-be-introduced On Line banking) & Microsoft Office 97. As it happened, I found neither; little surprise, as Office 97 arrived in the shops only yesterday, together with admiring write-ups in the press. I shall take myself back to the computer fair tomorrow to see if I have better luck.

We have been spending a lot of money. First, we booked ourselves a skiing holiday. Neither of us has been skiing now for several years, something that prompts Jones to regret her purchase (at my prompting) of a new pair of ski-boots on her last trip to Canada - boots she hasn’t worn since. Some months ago, Jones suggested that we try skiing in Scotland this year. We made various inquiries & I got a whole bunch of info off the Net but without getting excited.

This story could take a lot of telling. But in short, it turned out (a) that I’d obtained leave in February at the European half term when prices were at their highest & (b) that the only affordable skiing was to be done in Bulgaria (bad scene right now) or Andorra which Jones knew. There was a last booking available on Andorra & Jones snapped it up (discounted on the understanding that we accept accommodation at which ever resort the organisers choose). We fly out at 0600 on Sun 16 Feb. for a week. Hoo boy!!

Jones has also been catching up on some overdue dentistry. Sadly, like me, she has reached the stage where her overfilled molars will suffer no further filling & require capping to be saved. Even our amazing dentist (coffee & cognac always on offer) had a few problems with a back tooth that required attention. It ached for days after the first session & is still sensitive following this week’s capping. Moreover, the dentist has his doubts about whether the cap will hold. He’s offered - if it doesn’t - to replace it with some other device at his own expense!

I have continued my Sunday to Thursday editing of Asia Today quite pleasantly. In the evenings, we’ve been trying to sort out our Portuguese bookings. These have been complicated by a flurry of inquiries & the system of first options I offer to our regulars, all of whom I’ve had to chase up. It turned out too that I’d booked two of most regular regulars in a smaller casa that they’d anticipated without the possibility of moving them.

I was due to have a medical check-up with BUPA this a.m. but got a phone call from the group yesterday to say that two of their doctors were down with flu. Did I mind postponing it? I didn’t have much choice. The appointment has been moved to next Friday instead.

I also decided that I really ought to lose some weight & have gone onto a kind of Jones diet, large amounts of veges.