30December1995

London: 30.12.1995

My dear folks,

Just a shorty. It’s late & I’m sleepy & I hit the sack early ahead of another three night shifts looming up. The year’s rushing to a headlong end. It’s as though the countdown to the launch of 96 is under way. I’ll barely notice it tomorrow night as we prepare the programme for the morning. Our downstairs neighbours are having a party so I’m not sorry to be working. We dropped in for a drink with them this evening, the ones whose heating has been playing up. It was playing up tonight and I confess that their living room was a mite chilly. So I took down our electric heater to warm their toes and phoned the plumber who promised to take another look. It’s bloody difficult to fix something that works half the time.

Mavis dropped in too. He’s a regular visitor to their flat. In fact, he’s a regular visitor to all the flats in the house. He had made himself comfortable on Delphin’s lap, snuggling his head up against her bosom, in a manner that one can only envy. Jones & I had a couple of glasses of wine with them before retiring upstairs to consume a curry Jones had done for dinner. Very good too! We took a bottle of Spanish sparkly with it to celebrate the occasion. And we finished off with a box of the amazing chocolates that the Gohdeses gave us for Christmas.

We were due for a big dump of something earlier in the day. In the event, the snow fell north and south of us. We merely got a fine hail of spickles that covered the pavements in a treacherous coating of ice. We decided that we would take the opportunity to see The Usual Suspects, a film highly rated by the critics. We set out, skidding and sliding down the block, then making our way along the canal & through the park before catching the tube. We had little company. It was cold & windy and not a lot of fun. The film lived up to our expectations. It’s violent but not upsetting. And it’s very clever. Next on my list is Babe, the Australian animatronics film which has had rave reviews and, we’re told, put millions of Americans off eating pork.

Enough! Just to say hi and we’re thinking of you and will be again tomorrow night.

Happy New Year.

T