30March1996

My dear folks

I have bought the CD of the Riverdance performance & it’s filling the study with their swirl of Irish melancholy & massed drum-beat tap-dancing. Sounds like custard & sardines doesn’t it. But they’re simply amazing. I was overwhelmed the first time I saw the troupe - at the Royal Variety Concert, without having any idea who or what they were. I thought they came from Eastern Europe. Then I saw them again & was just as impressed. Last I heard they, were taking New York by storm. All my Jon Bovi tickets I shall donate to Erica but I should walk at least a league to see Riverdance.

This morning I had the weirdest experience. I’d woken early after crashing last night, & come down to see if Alan’s email message had reached me successfully. I linked up to my Internet Service Provider to check my email - something that involves dialling up their computer via a modem & entering a personal password. To my utter amazement, it refused to allow me access to my mail until I entered a second password - as though someone had installed a second lock on the front door while I were out shopping. For an hour, I battled to get past the electronic sentry - in vain. I tried the BBC computer dept but they weren’t familiar with the system. I switched my laptop computer instead but it ran into exactly the same problem.

It drove me to distraction. I had to wait until 10.00 when the helpline opened before managing to resolve it. The BBC Networking Club, to which I belonged, closed down at the start of the year & transferred its members to a big Service Provider called Pipex. It seems that 30 March was the day when the Pipex computer stopped recognising the BBC log-ons - regarding them as an old key in a new lock - & because the delivery of the Pipex software has been delayed, I was caught short. The good news is that I was able to reconfigure my log-on & get through. The bad news is that Pipex’s computer was being upgraded & out of action for the weekend. So I shall have to wait until Monday until I can get to my mail. Alan, few people can have anticipated a message so eagerly & for so long. I do hope it’s waiting for me!

The day dawned full of sun & hope, only to cloud over mid-morning. Mave & I gazed out through the kitchen window, taking pleasure in the instant colour of the new plants in the troughs on the window ledges but wishing the sun would come back. It did for a while in the afternoon. I took myself off on my bike for a couple of hours, keeping half an eye on a huge black cloud that fortunately kept its distance. One of my purchases, Jones, was a small pot of special brown paint with which I have hidden the chip I made in the kitchen sink. I have also sewn up the gap which was opening up in the front of my shoe. They’re both tasks that have long been nagging me. Apart from this I launched quite a serious assault on the study, which was getting quite out of hand. All in all, it’s been an active day - with quite a lot accomplished. Or, rather, with the sense of quite a lot accomplished, which is much more important.

I have taken several more Quinta phone & fax calls too. There’s been a huge response to my latest ads in the BBC mag - although only one call has resulted in a firm booking. There’s a couple looking for a week at the end of April, Jonesy, that ought to fit in perfectly, although they’ve yet to confirm. As you say, two weeks to go. I’m afraid the we missed the lottery jackpot again. If it’s any consolation, so did everybody else. It was one of those that came up with 3 consecutive numbers. Maybe our luck will improve next week. Blessings and much love meanwhile. xxxxx T
(PS. Summer time starts tonight. Our clocks go forward an hour to GMT + 1).