27June1996

My dear folks,

The end of another day. And such a useful one! This isn’t going to be a computer letter. You’ve had enough of those these past few days. But you ought to know that the day’s big task has been to cycle over to the far side of Finchley - a good 45 mins - for a 90 minute computer session with a knowledgeable colleague & an exchange of software. I returned home with two new programmes on my laptop, one for transferring software between computers by cable and another which will enable me to dial into to the BBC from home. I used the former to copy the latter from my laptop to my desktop computer & to my pleasure, after just a little fiddling, I was able to dial into the Beeb and catch up on developments. The link will prove enormously useful for staying in touch and simply checking rotas & the like. Means I can do my reading in from home before I leave.

The ride was the longest ride I’ve made in some time, a good 90 mins all up, on a hot afternoon with a computer-laden knapsack on my back. But I reckon I beat most of the traffic. London’s streets are so designed to force motorists away from suburban streets on to heavily congested arterial roads. These are nearly always on bus routes & run through numerous High St. shopping centres. I sneaked past endless lines of cars, nipping up on to the pavement when the gap was too narrow even for a bicycle.

By the time I got home, I was very sweaty & equally thirsty & fell fast asleep over the news. The lead item was the post football match riot in Trafalgar Square & half a dozen other parts of the country. A Russian student, taken for a German, is in hospital tonight with five stab wounds. I know it’s the habit of old men to look back fondly on better times & I don’t intend to do so. But I do often wonder why Britain is saddled with more than its fair share of yobs.

I arose late again this morning & after a couple of hours on the computer, took my neighbour to Sainsbury’s where the pair of us stocked up on goodies for the week. We also consulted our diaries as she is planning to be away in Italy soon & I’m scheming to get back down to Portugal. Our cats are sufficiently put out by the departure of either party. The simultaneous departure of both would be a catastrophe.

The flat’s in a ferocious mess with boxes of carpet tiles lying in every corner. But the work’s done & all I have to do now to throw out the left overs. At least I can look at the lounge with a sense of pleasure again. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have 3 consecutive days off from work. I met a friend recently who has taken 3 months unpaid leave & he said he felt like a schoolboy on the first day of hols. I knew exactly what he meant.

There - let me wish you goodnight.

Blessings
T