9September1997

9 September 1997
My dear folks,

It’s a blazing hot afternoon, both here & in Portugal to judge by Jones’s fax. Mave is stretched out on the landing. The fat feline gave me a moment of amusement this a.m. After whacking into his nosh first thing as usual, he went down to wait beside the flat door for my exit. He doesn’t like being left along in the flat when I go to work. I peeped over the banister to see him sitting motionless & staring patiently into space. However, the need for a pee overtook him before I left & he returned to the landing, squeezing laboriously through his flap to get to his loo on the patio.

It was as he completed his ablutions that I came down & he rushed to the patio door where we stared at each other through the glass. If it’s possible for a cat to look unhappy, that cat was Mave. The hairy sausage knows how long it takes to wriggle through his flap & that he hadn’t a chance of getting back before I was out of the flat & gone. I took pity on him, waiting beside the open flat door until he’d squeezed his bulk back inside the landing. He came hurtling down the stairs in his anxiety not to be left behind – before regaining his dignity in the corridor.

I left him squatting in his favourite place downstairs as I cycled off to work where I’d agreed to spend a morning training up a new journalist on the computer system. Four hours was barely sufficient to run through the essentials of the programme & give him a quick tour of the facilities. I warned him that he would find the first few weeks very stressful. There’s a huge amount to assimilate & precious little time to do it. It’s doubly unfortunate that he will barely have got to grips with the system when it will be junked in favour of the programme replacing it. That’s life!

The day’s moment of excitement came at a major intersection underneath the motorway. My attention was drawn to an incident by the angry shouts of a motorcyclist whose bike was lying on the ground beside a large truck. He wasn’t injured, merely enraged, for he leapt up several times to try to punch the truck driver through the open window. His blows were easily parried by the driver as the motorcyclist couldn’t both hang on to the truck & deliver an effective punch. He became all the angrier. I left the pair of them shrieking invective at each other. They didn’t need my help.

To my surprise, I found that the roster had been changed, putting me down without warning to work tomorrow instead of Thursday. There was every chance that I’d have missed the change. I went around for a chat with the roster organiser who was as surprised as I was. It turned out to be a puzzling case of gremlins. So I’m off again tomorrow & work Thur/Fri as originally scheduled. This is fortunate as I have to see the dentist tomorrow for the second half of the tooth capping operation.

Before that, I have a meeting at the Beeb this evening – a monthly occasion when the “suits” brief the staff on what’s happening behind the scenes. One member of each team is required to attend, generally the team editor. My editor is celebrating a wedding anniversary & he was most grateful when I agreed to go on his behalf.

This afternoon, I went around to the house under decoration to inspect progress & to meet an engineer from a television aerial firm. Tenants had complained of the poor reception they were experiencing. The engineer eventually arrived & managed to tweak the electrics to improve the signal. It wasn’t perfect as a nearby block of flats was causing ghosting. But reception was much improved for his efforts & I happily paid the £47 he asked for the job. It’s easier when it’s not your own money.

So there, another very ordinary day. I’m not complaining. Ordinary days have their merits. (Cathy, Mave asks me to say that he’s had a wonderful fax from Anita & will immediately do as she suggests!)

Blessings
T