4July1997

4/07/1997
My dear folks,

This is a quickie. I was meant to be off duty & had the day nicely laid out in my mind but I got dragged into to do an extra shift. Since I constantly do deals with the roster lady, it can be very difficult to refuse her requests. I cried off the first of these, to do a full day shift, but was promptly mugged into an afternoon/evening shift instead. I work again Saturday & head for Portugal Sunday a.m.

So I concertinad my plans & made a virtue of necessity. Thursday a.m. I cycled 45 mins across to deepest Chiswick for an hour-long chat with Simply Portugal. We agreed that I’d taken too many peak bookings for 98 to make a deal for next year worthwhile & I left on the understanding that I would take no bookings for 99 before consulting them. Back home in the drizzle in time for lunch with Fregs & Gary (both very ex-SABC & much else) at a wine bar around the corner.

Gary is newly “retired” & moving from Jhb to CT where he’s just bought a townhouse. We compared notes over a rather winey confection & then retired to the flat for a glass or two an expensive port (acquired en route). After seeing them off, I promptly fell asleep in the TV chair & was consequently late for my hair appointment. I took a couple of glasses of port along to mollify the hairdresser, Elaine, a 21 year old who’s my contact with the “other” world.

Up early this a.m. for a drive out to the parcel storehouse in west London to pick up what I thought was some software. It turned out to be a parcel for a friend due to visit London next month. Cost me 45 mins in the rush hour traffic back into town. Thence to doctor for Jones’s prescription & pills & finally to the nursery for some curry plants & thyme to take down to Portugal.

I was delighted on my return to find a floppy disk & instruction book from Barclays in the post. Promptly installed the software & got down to my first instalment of on line banking. I downloaded my statement with great satisfaction. Means I can stay up with my Barclays account from anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, there’s no link to my Jersey account or to Jones’s Lloyds account. Barclays say they are considering links to other banks but that’s down the road.

Thank you Cath for your update & Jones for your latest. Cath, keep us posted in Portugal of any changes to your flying plans. BA & unions are deep in consultation &, with any luck, with resolve their dispute. Still no word on my OnLine application. I ran into a couple of the OnLine people at work & asked them to email me the outcome as I would be away for the next few weeks. They said glumly that there were complications & they didn’t expect to know for at least another fortnight. They would let me know as soon as they could. I confess that my expectations are low. And my thoughts about BBC management right now are best not committed to print.

Very little else exciting in my life, other than any exchange with a lady bus driver who nearly ground me into the pavement. I caught up with her at the next stop, opened her window & begged her to be kinder to cyclists. She was issuing tickets & was not pleased to be harangued by pests such as me. So she shut the window. I promptly opened it again & continued, very politely, to ask for greater consideration. She was not pleased. But then, neither was I

Blessings
T