Good Entertainment for a Rainy Day

It is raining on my washing AGAIN. Sigh. There was thunder earlier, so I turned off the computers. For about five minutes.

I was trying to clean out three small cases full of photographs, camera booklets and papers, hoping I would be able to get rid of the stuff inside and not have the cases sitting around any more, but most of it is stuff I have to keep (for now at least). I found some old invoices… my old Nikon camera was bought in early 1987. Together with lens, case, skylight filter, VAT of 15% and a roll of film, it cost £197.18. There were several old invoices in there, and I though I didn’t recognize them at first, I knew exactly what each one was before I looked at it.

Spooky. Perhaps it’s the traces of past memory, coming from a time when I handled these things more often.

There are some instruction manuals for old cameras dating from the 1950s and 1960s. The advertising booklets of the above Nikon camera, of various filters (beautifully laid-out and printed), and even of the Tokina long lens I bought later.

Then there were odd things hidden in there too… something I don’t remember writing at all, but it’s in my handwriting and must have been for a postcard presentation:

A taube was an Austrian monoplane used early on in the First World War by the Germans. The shape of the wings inspired the name taube or ‘dove’.

That was probably taken from the back of one of the cards, but looking up ‘taube’ here, it says the plane wasn’t modelled after a bird (despite the name) but after certain seeds. Anyway, if you plan to go on one of those quiz shows, squirrel that nugget away… you might need it!

I don’t quite know what to do with the rough copy of an old letter I sent an ex-boyfriend… the italicized bits in square brackets are my comments of today.

31 March 1991

Dear [black-haired lad]

Good to get your reply. So you did get damp in Rum…

The Gulp War has been declared. I nearly changed my mind. You are equipped with all the latest technology so what chance have I got? There is no desktop publishing package with this setup, no laser or graphic printers, no selection of dinosaurs and toasters with which to bamboozle the enemy. The computer is primarily a games computer – I never wanted it bought into the family, but it was [my sister's] thesis, her choice. As it is, the daisywheel printer doesn’t get on too well with the Atari, and we had to feed the thesis through sheet by sheet. It is not a small thesis.

E’s cat has had five kittens. All alive and thriving. I believe the three weirdest can be shown. We were at the cat show in ****** on Saturday. Absolute chaos. No more so than us I suppose. You should have seen us in a lift in one of the stores. They nearly left me behind to start with, and we visited every floor but the right one. Finally we arrived at our destination minus one passenger, E having got out at the wrong floor on the way.

Last week was hectic at work. Monday we had the Big Boss of the company on a visit – a woman, **** ****. It was practically a visit of state, and we had daffodils put everywhere and a buffet lunch set out for all staff, which as a form of entertainment has been unheard of up to now. Jim said he tried to oil out of it but Adrian insisted that his presence was required. I said that from the way the memo was phrased I had been left with the impression that the presence of everyone was required, not just that of Senior Analyst Programmers.

On Tuesday I had to drink to Roy’s departure to our new branch in Luxembourg. Unfortunately for Roy, this occasion turned into Gill’s pre-wedding celebration. She was pretty excited.

On Wednesday we presented Gill with a set of garden furniture (the blame lies with one of her close friends) and drank to her future happiness. This year everyone seems to be getting married. My cousin Richard wants me to go to his wedding in Finland, but I’m a bit dubious about it.
“It will be nice for him to have at least one of his cousins there.”
“But he’s got dozens of cousins.”
“Yes, but you seem to be the elected one.”

I don’t know. Maybe.

Trallval. Clever of you! I’m the one who is supposed to know something about the origins of the English language, [2008 note: heavy accent on 'supposed'!], and I couldn’t have told you what it meant. [2008 query: WHAT does it mean? Troll's Hall??]

… [rambles]… I’ve been perusing a gemstone jeweller’s catalogue, but on the whole I’m not tempted into further extravagance.

[This whole thing reads like an epistle by a young Victorian lady].

Monday 1st of April

It’s nothing new for me to hate Mondays but today was worse than most. I was late, leaving the house at nine, and ran all the way. It was only when I sat down that it really hit me. Aargh! I felt sick and wanted to cry. When I thought about it I decided it was a bit like altitude sickness or diver’s bends – I came with too much of a rush. Normally on the walk to work I have time to get used to the idea that my weekend has ended again.

People like Jim help to let off pressure. You can say what you like to him about whatever is going on, and he’ll accept it or try to jolly you out of it. It’s a much better way of letting off steam than nagging at people, or saying nothing and not managing to concentrate on the work. Today I had to use the computer facing Julie [the senior editor, my immediate superior] – no-one was able to tell me how to use my own computer in a certain field, this is something I will have to remedy!! The computer opposite Julie has already been abandoned by one person who couldn’t take any more of her – she muttered something about negative vibes and not being able to concentrate on her work, and removed to an empty desk in the Marketing Department. I didn’t say anything to anybody about my temporary change of position, but soon I got this mail message: “Facing Julie? Yuk!!”

I hope you’re not bored by all the trials of my working life! It’s about all there is to talk about, unless I tell you about my various collections (under or over 50p per item), or the kittens, or memories from my past days of freedom. I think I’ll just go get more coffee. That was the best mug I’ve had for many a day! Expresso coffee, filtered in a Russell Hobbs and heated up in the microwave. [I remember that Russell Hobbs coffee-maker; it hissed and burbled and I had it at university... named it Gurgi. The coffee was always rather cold, so I would heat it up, usually in a pan]. Believe it or not, it lost nothing. Now I’m burbling about coffee again.

What is a Munro? I like the quotation by the way. But I’m by no means an obsessive collector. Perhaps the very fact that I collect lots of things is my safeguard. I don’t get so absorbed in any hobby that there’s no talking to me, nor am I like the tick collectors who climb only a certain type of hill – my problem is to keep my collecting interests within bounds. I’m not a serious collector so much as a hapless and spendthrift squirrel. It does nothing for the family storage space, but it’s always good entertainment for a rainy day.

… You’re not unimaginative. Anyone who shivers at the wind knocking on the door can’t possibly be. In the flat I stayed in in my third year the wind did the same thing to the letterbox flap. Usually I ignored it but one night I was going quietly up the dark stairs and the letterbox flap started banging, and a cold draught curled round my ankles. It was all I could do not to take to my heels. If you run, though, your ghost runs too, so I walked up the rest of the stairs very carefully and fell into my room.

I don’t think I’ll print this letter tonight as the kids have gone to bed. (Old neighbours from Edinburgh). Still no dates projected for our visit to xxxxxxxxxx, I’ll have to give some thought to it. I’ll take advantage of the phone number if we make up our minds what we’re doing. I do not feel ordinarily tired! It could be that a couple of days away from the office will be just what the doctor ordered, but I don’t think we’ll see our way clear till the various visitors have all been and gone.

Tuesday 2nd April

For the past few days Lorna (at work) had been complaining of a cold. I have a nasty feeling I may have caught it. Last night I had a nightmare involving Lorna, Toni (another of the girls), Kathryn (the girl who had my job before) and Fiona (a part-time editor). There are only two bits I’m clear about. Fiona dying in my arms just as she was about to go on holiday, with me mourning for her because she had never managed to escape the office. And Lorna and Toni trying to hide me in a cellar below the sea.

[A work project] is finished, we’re just tying up the loose ends. But after the worry I had over the program having bugs and messing up my numbers, one thing emerged that pleased me very much. A check was run on my work which provided a printout of 13 names. They were all names which I’d typed differently from [another company], and Jim had to check them before letting them go. He found that they all had been typed wrongly by [the other company] and that I had given the correct spellings or versions. Gold star from the Senior Analyst Programmer!!

Hope to invade ********* soon. Happy whatever you’re doing.

And there it just stops. No ‘love Diddums’ or anything, but it was probably just a draft printout. And I don’t know what to do with it, apart from blog about it!!!

What were you doing on those days in 1991??