25October1995

London: 25th October 1995
My dear folks,

It would take the skills of a Jane Austen to interest posterity in our doings these past few days. I take comfort in the thought that I am not writing for posterity. Also, I am grateful for days when there is nothing more exciting to relate than a good book. I can recommend my latest read in my mission to discover the secrets of the universe (Francis Crick’s: The Astonishing Hypothesis - The Scientific Search for the Soul).

I can’t recommend the film I took Jones to see a couple of nights ago - CLUELESS. It was well written up in a couple of papers, including The Independent which sets exacting standards. Although there were better films showing at the local cinema complex, we settled on CLUELESS as it suited our schedule. I should have been alerted by the hordes of teenies. In the end we sat it out. I told myself that I was beyond the love lives of teenagers, however slickly presented. Then I was reminded of the pleasure we get from Pride and Prejudice - last episode coming on Sunday - where the heroine admits to being not yet twenty one years. There’s hope yet!

Yesterday, I cycled over to Earls Court to see the motor show. I blessed the bike. The ironies of the gridlocked traffic for a mile in every direction were not lost on me. Inside the exhibition halls, the reason was apparent. In spite of the hefty entrance fee, the place was chockers - the biggest crowds in the vicinity of the exotic sports cars. I joined the shuffle, past the Ferrari F50 (gorgeous) & the new MG sports car (not gorgeous). The most beautiful car on show was the Aston Martin DB7, a little symphony of styling. All the above were regrettably several zeros out of my price range. Indeed, even in the most mundane ranges, there was little available under £8,000 & it was made in Korea or Czechoslovakia. The Rocket can relax a while yet. Then I cycled back across town to give Penny a lesson on her new laptop computer, a real beauty! I’d left my bicycle lights at home, forgetting that sunset had been put back an hour at the weekend. Made for an uncomfortable trip home.

The wind howled about the place last night, the fringes of a gale that ripped at much of Western England. The branches and leaves whipping about in the storm drive Mavis to distraction. He stares out, tail lashing, from his perch on the back of the couch, with his front paws on the windowsill, as if posing for an arty photo. Today dawned blue & still. We walked to the local street market & then up through a warren of antiquities stalls to take coffee & cake on the roof of a building that has to be seen to be believed. We sat outside in the sun but had to retreat indoors when a couple of leaky black clouds rolled over. I had taken along my beloved Mephisto shoes as the soles of both had split clean across. To my great pleasure, I was able to have them replaced by the cobbler. I reckon I can get another two years out of them.

We will get back upstairs to our bedroom tomorrow when our American guests depart for a few days in Scotland. The place has been a bit crowded but they’ve been easy guests and considerate! We’re not complaining. Back to work this evening at the start of another spell of nightshifts.