25June1996

My dear folks,

It’s the loveliest kind of Tuesday evening. Mavis has supped & has spread himself out to reflect in a tranquil hour. Wimbledon’s on TV, to say nothing of the cricket & Euro96 soccer - England take on Germany tomorrow in a match which the scummier tabloids have built up into a replay of World War 2. Last night I watched the first instalment of a fascinating documentary on the French Foreign Legion - recruits, their training & reactions. Most are weeded out. The 2nd instalment’s tonight. Took me back to Air Force Gym days where the fare was much the same if less severe.

I woke late, spent the latter part of the morning sorting out my income tax & the afternoon getting the hang of a current affairs programme on which I’ll be working next week to allow its usual producer to take leave. I’m off now till the weekend when I work Sat/Sun in the newsroom - & then Tues to Fri on the new programme.

Gradually, I’m getting the flat under control. But there’s still work to do before I feel comfortable. There are just too many objects crowding in on me, largely because they’re not in their proper places. Others are simply accumulations which have become redundant to any need I feel. A new charity shop has opened right across the road & I’ve been mightily tempted to make some hefty donations. I might sneak them the odd item before Jones gets back but as I’m always inclined to throw out her junk & she mine, prudence suggests that I merely put things away for the moment.

I did invest in a new cordless iron after the old one’s unpredictable behaviour - a feast of steam or none at all - starting creasing up the clothes. The old one’s been fixed twice, once by the agents & once by me, but to little avail. I’ve consigned it to the cupboard as a fall back. I find that co-operative appliances are important to one’s good humour & sense of well being & that it’s no bad thing to retire those which have borne the heat & burden of the day. Sadly, threatening to retire themselves is my current pair of Mephisto shoes which after a mere five years & one resoling is starting to come apart at the seams. My first pair (after 2 resolings) is still going strong in Portugal & I’d anticipated reaching the turn of the century in these.

I had a little hunt around on the Internet for Loule & came up with masses of info on the Algarve, mainly put in by property developers & holiday providers. There’s an interactive map (not functional yet) & a list of all the towns in the region & their main delights. I promptly double-clicked on Loule to establish its attractions but these - like the interactive element of the map - are still due for delivery, on screen at least. I did establish that Portugal’s main Internet Access Provider now has an access point in Faro, making Internet access economically feasible from the Quinta.

I spent another half hour exploring the Proms pages on the Web. One can download brief excerpts of the music - although these take 50 times as long to download as to play - & listen to their strains. That fascinates me. I know we deal with digital sound all the time but to watch the file gradually building up on screen as a series of numbers & then suddenly burst into life as the genius of Dvorak remains extraordinary.

Enough of virtual reality. It’s nearly sunset. I must water the flowers. Good night for now.

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