Thursday 18th December 1969

Thursday 18^th December 1969

The Hotel International

Brno

Dear Mum and Dad and Nanny,

As you can see I am already on a temporary separation from Tony but it is only from Wednesday dinner time to Friday evening (19^th) then I am not working the whole of Christmas time and we shall be together in Prague. I will then be in Brno on the 28^th – 30^th December but I am borrowing a flat from A.R. who is the other I.C.L. programmer- a very nice person. I then start working here on the 2^nd January and will be based here for some time. The work here looks very interesting and I think I will enjoy it. The people are certainly very nice. I am not getting on too well learning Czech as I never seem to have any time.

It is very difficult to distinguish between work and social time here as a lot of office and administration work seems to be done in the evenings in other people’s homes over a gin and tonic – which is the accepted drink here. Everyone looks askance when we say we don’t drink much and it is difficult not to offend people by refusing, but we are persevering with our abstinence.

I hope my first letter reached you. I have since heard that it is necessary to put ones name and address on the back of the envelope to ensure delivery- the same applies to you writing to me.

Since I last wrote on Tuesday quite a lot has happened. We had dinner with V. C.  The country manager for I.C.L. and found out Tony will be in charge of all the customers in the Czech nearly all in Prague itself; mainly liaising with them and doing systems work. He will be under the Czech manager L. B.- who we have been to dinner with on Monday night. In the afternoon I began packing and collected my air ticket to Brno (only £3) and a 50 minute flight and very convenient. But if the weather is bad the train which cost the same takes 3 hours. At 4.30 I met the chief programmer G. W. and he took us back to his house for tea. He is Polish and his wife is German. They have a lovely little girl aged three who speaks no English. We had an enjoyable evening talking about many things.

On Wednesday we got our bank accounts settled (this took over an hour) and then had photos taken for our visas and started filling in the forms which were quite complex. G. W. then took me to the airport to be sure I would catch the plane OK. A.R. met me and we spent the whole afternoon and evening together supposedly discussing work but also talking about books, films and life in general. I met one of her Czech friends who was helping me with my accent. It seems a Birmingham accent is quite good for learning Czech. This hotel is very luxurious – my own bathroom, radio and television and a potted plant. I am on the top floor so I have a good view too (10^th floor). I have not had time to see much of Brno yet and hope to do so in the New Year.

I was at work at 8 o clock this morning. The Czech start at 6.30 am but we all finish at 3 pm. In Prague I.C.L. staff work English hours 9-5.30 but this is impossible when you are actually at a customer. I am writing this at 4.20.

Today I have travelled on a tram and had dumplings for dinner. Tonight I am going to dinner with two of the I.C.L. engineers. One is certainly never lonely here- more likely you never have time to yourself.

I will try and phone on Sunday. You may not have had a letter yet and I don’t want you to worry over Christmas.

I am so pleased because all the I.C.L. people I have met so far are extremely nice, very interesting to talk to and able to discuss a wide range of topics in fact with similar views on life to Tony and I.

I am also pleased because they all like it here so much and most of them don’t want to go back to England to live until they have to. Several people have young children here with them and 2 babies have been born here.

I will write again soon. Happy new year- I don’t expect this to reach you before Christmas. I will tell you when we have a more permanent address. We will probably need some of our things sent out then,

Tell Paula and David I will write as soon as I get time. Probably over Christmas.

Lots of love to you all

Gillian and of course Tony

The customer I was working for in Brno was a tractor manufacturing company. They had their offices in an old prison with a huge room heater called a ‘teplo’ in the corner.  Although they started work at 6.30 in the morning the computer programmers would fry pork fat and bacon and eggs on the teplo and spend a good hour having breakfast. The strange working hours were a hangover from the Hapsburg Empire. One of the emperors suffered from insomnia and if he was up at the crack of dawn all his subjects had to do the same.

Like many factories in Eastern Europe, the tractor factory invariably boasted to have exceeded its centrally dictated production targets. Why then were there shortages of just about everything in the country? A story we later heard was that the factory quality control section was situated at the final stage of the factory (of course) but crutially just after the staff who counted the production output. Tractors would fail the quality control tests and be promptly wheeled round to the start of the production line for correction. This resulted in the tractor being counted twice as it passed the counting staff again, and so on. Variations on this theme were seen in other production centres where we later worked.

The factory toilets were in the old stable block and disgusting.  They were accessed with the aid of a large 19^th Century key kept on a peg on the wall of the office. We always went to the local cafe for lunch just to use the toilets.

My first dinner meeting with the country manage V. C. was not auspicious; I had an argument with him about the virtues of Vitamin C as a cold preventative. At the end I asked him what his credentials were for pronouncing on vitamins as I had a degree in nutrition. He replied that he regularly read ‘The Lancet’. Surprisingly he did not take against me and I found out later most I.C.L. workers were a bit afraid of him so maybe he enjoyed a robust discussion with me. Tony was with me at the dinner and tried without success to steer the conversation into less vexatious waters.

One good thing about our time in Prague was we met some interesting and unusual people, both Czech and British. I.C.L. generally attracted a different breed of computer expert compared to the uniform quality of the staff at our main competitor, I.B.M.. Those from ICL who chose to go to Eastern Europe were also a different breed from usual. Many of them have remained good friends through life.