30June1997

My dear folks, 29/06/97

I have seen a remarkable television documentary film. It was about an engineer who had two huge stone pillars cut to the exact dimensions of the biggest stones in the outer (sarsen) ring at Stonehenge, 2 x 30-foot 40-ton upright pillars & one 9-ton lintel. He then set about trying to emulate the ancients’ feat. With the help of scores of volunteers & using only materials that would have been available in days of yore, he set about dragging the stones to a selected point, erecting the pillars & capping them with the lintel. It proved an extraordinarily difficult task, even with his expert knowledge of levers & mechanics. I sat utterly fascinated as the engineers head-scratched & the volunteers levered & toiled at the end of ropes until, at last, they were able to erect their pillars & capstone. I subsequently spent an hour reading up on Stonehenge on the Internet. There are the most wonderful photos available there. You can admire them – or order copies of the original. I even down-loaded special plug-ins to enable me to go on a virtual Stonehenge tour. But my computer refused point blank to go along with it.

I once saw a documentary about an engineer who got a team together to reconstruct a miniature pyramid & that proved just as much of a bugger. Which just goes to show something or other.

ITV has been running a series on UFOs all week, with lots of studio discussions & experts of every hue, not to mention those who believe themselves to have been kidnapped by aliens & subjected to intimate examinations. As a professional sceptic, I found myself siding with the scientist who wondered why all the abductees had failed to return with so much as a stellar ashtray for their experiences. On the other hand, having witnessed my own UFO (in the company of a large group of sober friends on a Joburg lawn) I rule nothing out. It’s a strange world in an even stranger universe, Roswell incident or no Roswell incident.

Cathy, I hope the pet crises in your house are close to an acceptable resolution. Mavis is pleased to be able to tell you that there is none in ours, other than his frustration at having been refused egress from the house these past two mornings. He knows when I’m going to work &, having insisted on being fed the moment I arise, takes up position at the door for an escape. I lifted him up several stairs apologetically & explained that I wasn’t having him spend 13 hours in the rain while his saviour, Stef, was away on holiday. He was less than impressed & I saw him crouching, as I squeezed through the door myself, trying to work out his chances of whizzing past me.

I also have to report on his new bed. On my return from Portugal, he immediately created a nest for himself (on top of my black & tan backpack) inside the open airways cabin bag that spent several days on the lounge floor. He was all but invisible against its natural camouflage, something he appeared to sense & like. When I eventually got around to putting these bags away, he retreated to the black Trizec bag in which I carried him to the vet some weeks ago. To the comfort of this he now retires several times a day for a snooze recharge. What a funny fellow!

I was able to get through to Witbank last night for a chat & delighted to find Brendan much relieved over the progress Conal & the new manager are making down in Nelspruit. They have apparently managed to turn the restaurant around, although it’s high season & there’s still a long haul ahead. I wish I could say the same about his mining project; he has heard nothing further of the all-important contract he awaits. He said the last few weeks had left him close to exhaustion. The worst seems to be over. Micaela has just broken up for the school holidays.

Jones I had a brief word with the “Coppers” who arrive mid p.m. on Tuesday for a week. They were concerned about keys & I hastened to put their minds at rest. Have noted your wish list. It shouldn’t present any problems.

Thank you Robbie for your long email which I shall take down to the Quinta next Sunday. You & Brendan would probably entertain similar views about dealings with unions. His can all be expressed in four letter words & generally are. I keep fingers crossed for the Natal job you have in mind. Speaking of which, I’ve heard nothing further of my own board for the BBC Online position. I do not entertain high hopes.

My last 2 day shifts were tolerable. We led the bulletins on Sunday with Mike Tyson’s disqualification for chewing off chunks of Evander Holyfield’s ears. I’m not surprised he spat the bits out. I once inadvertently tried the Alentejo delicacy of pigs’ ears & was distinctly underwhelmed. I put together a package on Mir, based around the astronauts’ first TV link-up after Wednesday’s space collision. They looked cheery enough in spite of wretched circumstances. They’d even had to shut down the toilets for a while, no light matter in a gravity free environment. (How I wish that some of Maida Vale’s dogs would find “it” floating back at them after they thought they left it safely deposited on the pavement!) Mercifully, I’m off duty (so far) today when we have a string of specials from Hong Kong. I can appreciate the inevitability of giving saturation coverage to such moments of history but I suspect that many of our viewers will be glad to see the back of it.

I organised a team lottery draw on Saturday, convinced that our eleven entries must at last bear fruit. There was a queue of equally silly hopefuls at the post office counter ahead of me, throwing their money away. We certainly threw ours away. Not a penny for our troubles. To add to my woes, I found myself with a semi-flat tyre on Saturday evening as I was about to cycle home. A search of the bike park revealed one cycle with a pump attached to it (normally an invitation to a thief) & I managed to force sufficient air into the ailing tyre to get within a 100 metres of home before having to dismount. I shall try to get up to the cycle shop on Monday.

Strikes loom at British Airways as you may be aware. As I recall, Cathy has already taken preventive action to avoid problems. With trips to Portugal & Canada imminent, I too am relieved not to be travelling with the “World’s (self-declared) favourite airline”. What a pretentious lot! Big fuss here over their multi million pound programme to remove the Union Jack from the tailplanes of their fleet & replace it with modern art. Flying the flag is apparently passé. Virgin promptly said it would add the flag to its fleet instead.

Let me get this off. My thoughts are much with you.

T