20May1997

Tuesday 20 May 1997
My dear folks,

I’ve got two bags of goo bubbling away in a saucepan on the stove. We’ve nearing the end of a showery day. Old Mave made it plain on my arrival back from a shopping trip this p.m. that an early supper would be in order. He’s now retired to his lamp & his thoughts. The early evening news is telling us about all the world’s problems & I am writing to you.

The morning went on working out the annual accounts for 4 of “my flats”. It’s a proper pain & one I put off for as long as possible. It means comparing cheque stubs, bank statements & invoices, & a gale of files strewn around the study, as I prepare accounts for the auditors. At least I had an undisturbed morning to get on with it. An hour went into exploring the capabilities of my super-clever Office 97 spreadsheets, a great advance on the Works software I’ve used previously. The programme constantly tries to guess what you might want next, hovering in the background like a helpful assistant & making occasional suggestions about working methods. Some of them are really useful, too. By lunch I was all but done. Now I have to repeat the exercise with 3 more flats & finally with the 90 Shirland Road Management Company of which I have been Secretary these past 10 years.

I was glad to get out of the flat after the lunchtime news. It took me ten minutes of peering through the front windows at the vacillating drizzle before I decided on using the bike rather than my feet. After the inevitable round of stops in Maida Vale (you must surely know them my heart) I cycled into town to raid a music store or two. I have got to know my current CD repertoire by heart & was bent on extending it. I’ve taken the trouble to set up a database of all the classical recordings on my shelf – and took the list with me to town. There are several big music stores on Oxford Street & close by. In the event, I spent an hour in the first one I came to (HMV) & then played hide & seek with the rain showers as I returned home with a knapsack full of (mainly cut-price) CDs. I’ve added their details to the database & begun listening to them – with much pleasure.

Jones I got hold of Bevan this p.m. & arranged to spend Saturday with him. I had another enquiry about the Quinta but not for a period when we have any vacancies. The patio garden has been prospering, especially those plants which made their own way into the tubs & troughs. There are several that absolutely leap up & have a brilliant head of flowers on them in a matter of weeks. Both the pink & white roses are flowering & the climbers are climbing. The one death trap is the round tub in the corner of the patio. Everything I plant there just keels over. I pulled out a couple of corpses yesterday, both of them lacking roots. There must be some monster that lives just under the surface & devours everything that comes its way. The troughs overlooking the street are looking good, with faithful pink geraniums in pride of place.

There’s another shower plicketing on the patio outside. They’re welcome all to be sure. Cathy I scanned a couple of those early letters (of mine that you returned) into the computer last night. Most of them made sense & were really interesting to dip back into, a great improvement on the first one I read with such dismay. The scanner is very fussy. It needs clear type if it’s to work properly. Try it with a carbon copy or a faint type face & it throws a word salad at you.

Enough for one night
love
T