16May1997

My dear folks,

Forgive my silence. It’s been a working silence, sort of. One of my flat owners, Geoff, came around yest. p.m. for a session that ended up over rather a pleasant supper with a third person from the house in which he has an interest. Geoff also has an interest in wines & ordered a couple of bottles of something special (one at a time) of which I probably had one glass more than was wise. Given my recent abstention, I think I’ll make that “definitely” one glass more than was wise. So I’m blinking ever so slightly this a.m. as I await a knock on the door from cousins Judy & Morna with whom I’m going off to downtown Maida Vale for brunch. I’m not suffering or anything; don’t get me wrong. I just feel as though a couple of hours more sleep would be rather nice.

I rang one of the Online chiefs yest. to ask if there was any point in my going to speak to him & he said yes. So I made an arrangement to see him at midday. I’ve not yet given up hope of joining Online entirely but I’m disinclined to invest any thing more in the project if I’m going to be wasting my time. I had a quiet word a couple of days ago with another senior bod who said: a) don’t quote me, and: b) that there are bits of the BBC where the people who sit on boards tend to rule out candidates over 50, confirming my own suspicions of the likely circumstances of the case. As one of your less politically correct members of society, I am deeply suspicious of most “isms”. So maybe the gods of ageism are taking their revenge. It’s funny how the years creep up on us, something that mother has probably been reflecting as well.

Thank you Jones & Cathy for your faxes. Cathy I rejoice with you in the good news about the comparatively inexpensive repair of your leaking basement walls. And Jones I’m pleased at the prospect of a week at the Quinta in June. It came about because the rota lady moved me to another team, inadvertently giving me a series of additional night shifts. She apologised when I pointed this out (ever so politely) and I asked whether I couldn’t take the last two nights as leave. It’s given me an unexpected & welcome week off.

Cathy, thank you also for the envelope bearing my old letters which popped through the door earlier in the week. I took a look at a couple of them & was taken aback by the mixture of impenetrable politics & turgid prose. “Holy Smoke!” I thought, “did I write that rubbish?” And I wondered whether you had read it (because it was virtually unreadable) & what you must have thought if you had. I’m surprised the letters didn’t end up on the fire. Truly, our sins come back to haunt us. I’ll take a closer look at the others when I get a moment, if only for the lessons I should learn.

Am working from midday today & full day-shifts (7 to 7) over the weekend.