29September1997

29 September 1997
My dear folks,

A Maida Vale sunset is underway through the study window, a pale imitation of the orb’s fiery descent over the Algarve’s western hills. Mave is taking his leisure downstairs after a weekend excursion. We are in the habit of leaving the flat together as I go off to work each evening & we generally meet again on the steps the following morning. I shrugged when he failed to return on Sunday as he does rather like his little breaks. Sure enough, he was back Monday a.m., anxiously wiggling his fat bottom on the steps in a piteous portrayal of his ravenous state. We both had breakfast before collapsing for the rest of the morning, I on the bed, he on the couch. Last I saw him he was doing his business in Stef’s flowers. He far prefers the freedom of the neighbours‘ flowerbeds to his official portaloo on the patio.

As you may gather, I’ve been working…..hard! For the last three nights I’ve cycled off into the gathering gloom to earn my living. There’s too much traffic around to take in pleasure in the exercise; the focus is just on staying alive. But it was a pleasure to cycle back through the near-deserted streets on a still Sunday morning. I like London most when it sleeps. The weather has been pleasantly warm, sufficiently so to allow me to cycle in a shirt. I went up to the cycle shop when I awoke this p.m. to get a new tube to replace one with a slow puncture in my back wheel. I carried out the exercise on the front steps of the house, thinking enviously of relatives with real garages & gardens. Finally, fingers fouled, I managed to put the bike away downstairs with arousing the neighbour’s dog.

One problem I’m still trying to sort out is obtaining a new back wiper for the Rocket. The small spring that holds the wiper against the glass gave up the 19-year old battle against rust some time ago and snapped. As one can’t buy the springs separately, I tried for the whole unit but was supplied with the wrong model. When I took it back to the suppliers, I was told that the unit needed for the car was no longer available. They offered to try to cannibalise the new one to fit the old but after five weeks of trying (not very hard) they’ve given up the effort. I’m mustering my forces for a frontal attack on the manager.

If all of this sounds very trivial, it is. It’s handling the trivia that’s the real challenge in life, I think. The crises handle themselves. The nights at work have concentrated on other people’s crises, as usual, smog over Malaysia, air & sea crashes & earthquakes. I had a bad start to Saturday when we tried to take the docking of Atlantis & Mir live – a nightmare as the picture came & went & NASA cut between live pix & tape – sometimes with commentary, others without. The latest economies imposed on us have left us short of the technical staff needed to manage such an operation. In the end, we muddled through, as usual. It left me feeling irritated & frustrated, like a cook who’s made a bad meal.

There was a pack of shriekies at the BBC gates for some event – pubescent girls gather there every weekend either for a show or in the hope of seeing some imagined idol. A producer had taken a camera down to record them & their baying reached us 100 metres away on the seventh floor behind two layers of glass. DG John Birt has been in the news, following his ignominious & welcome retraction of the latest reorganisation plans. A former colleague of his wrote a scathing article about his personal failings in one of the Sundays & we pinned it up on the board for the enjoyment of the rest of the newsroom. What a tosser!

There was a double rollover on the lottery last Saturday, with a cool £28 million top prize. Five tickets got the right number, sadly none of them mine. Tonight’s news featured an interview with a pub syndicate down in Kent which had put down the same number twice in error – and who took two of the five winning shares, a cool £10m plus! They didn’t even know it either until the lottery organisers pointed it out. That’s serendipity.

My thanks to Jones & Cathy for their regular faxes & to various emailers for updates. Am working again Wed/Thur nights before taking over Asia Today for two weeks ahead of my next trip to Portugal. Meanwhile, am trying to prepare new news templates for our latest relaunch at the end of October. Never a dull moment

Blessings
T