16th February 1970

Brno

16/2/70

Dear Mum and Dad,

Thank you for the letter dated the 2^nd Feb. I am glad you have not paid the Daf garage bill- Tony is writing to them to say that so many things have gone wrong with the car whilst it was under the 3 month guarantee that we will not pay the bill. I must tell you the saga of our car- it is a very sad tale. As I told you before we had an electrical fault in the voltage regulator and also suspected the dynamo was malfunctioning. As Tony had 3 bumps in 2 weeks we decided to take it to Vienna for repair last weekend (6^th Feb) We left the car in the garage all week and Tony collected it last Friday. Then the car looked beautiful- no bumps, they had sorted all the dents and cleaned the car. Luckily the bill was covered by our insurance except the voltage regulator.(but we have not got the money yet). Tony drove to Brno Friday night and just near the border the car started making a scraping sound very similar to our old Daf when the clutch broke. So Tony was very disappointed when he arrived in Brno as the car had a new clutch just before we bought it. On Sunday he set off for Prague early as we had a lot of snow on Saturday night and the road s were not good. After travelling for about half an hour a big lorry went by and the windscreen broke. It was so cold he could not continue and came back to Brno. As he could not get back to Prague anyway he decided to drive the car back to Vienna today and leave there until next Monday so that the clutch and the window could be mended. I think we have had bad luck but Tony has lost all faith in the Daf. However several things have gone wrong under guarantee so we do not intend to pay the garage bill- I think they probably owe us money!!!

As you can imagine we are hoping our salary will come from England quickly until the insurance pays our bills we are quite hard up.

I should not worry about income tax codes as we did not pay tax on this month’s salary as they must know now we are abroad. We did fill in some forms for income tax when we left England.

I had a birthday card from Auntie Win and family- it was very nice of her to write and I have sent post cards to most of my aunties and auntie Kath Curtis but never have time to write many letters. I am glad Tony phoned you last week. I think we are all agreed on the holiday now. I am looking forward to them very much and I have been getting lots of brochures on different areas of CSSR. Tony and I are not sure where to go for our holidays – we never seem to have time to discuss things at the weekends.

I am very envious because when Tony was in Vienna last Monday (10^th) he went to the Spanish riding school and watched the training for 2 hours. He said it was very good.

This Saturday we went riding with my landlord. He was a steeplechase jockey in his teens and knows someone who manages a stable of steeplechasers and show jumpers. The horses were beautifully kept in clean stables with glossy coats.

One really appreciates living in a country without a class system. These people were not at all ‘horsey’ with their noses in the air and were quite willing to let us ride their obviously valuable horse (Not like Mr B and his ageing Arabs which he would hardly let you touch)

The horses were fabulous not like riding school horses, which of course they were not. We could only walk because of the ice but the horses wanted to gallop and were quite a handful. They were all big animals, mine was a show jumper and Tony’s a steeplechaser.  We rode for 2 hours and really enjoyed it as the sun came out and the countryside looked beautiful.

When we returned to the stable they looked quite hurt when we offered them money and would not take a penny. They ushered into a very nice club that had been built for the stable hands and riders (who seemed to be on equal terms with the manager). Out came the wine and the vodka and we spent another 2 hours talking. I have been invited to go there any time with Juri (my landlord) and may go tomorrow afternoon ( it is very useful finishing work at 3 pm)

Just imagine that happening in England!

On Saturday afternoon we ‘did’ Brno – the cathedral and the castle. For Saturday evening we had booked a table at the ‘Crown Elizabeth’ wine cellar. I must take you there when you come to CSSR. Did I tell you about it before? I went with the I.C.L. crowd the other week. It is in the old castle walls and has a big open fire with only candle light. Lots of atmosphere. Tony was very impressed. We discovered the local champagne which was very good but went straight to my head. I don’t seem to be becoming a hardened drinker in spite of all the wine and alcohol here.

Last week my landlord qualified as a veterinary surgeon and Jura and Jana were celebrating every night and I had to drink Cognac, rum, vodka and wine on different nights. I never drink much- one glass is enough for me and I excuse myself by saying I am English. Although Czechs drink a lot they are very rarely drunk and seem to know when to stop. Jura and Jana are very nice people and I really enjoy living with them. Tony says I will find it very boring in Prague after Brno as he does not have such close contact with Czech people as I do.

Tony is coming to Brno on Thursday to go on the trip to the World Ski Championship. He is getting very little time for work these days. He spends all his time travelling to and from Vienna. We have been watching the ski championships on TV on Sunday and I was wondering if you were watching the same program in England?

My Czech does not seem to be progressing very quickly and I do not have the time to do the lessons and whenever I look up a word in the dictionary I forget it 5 minutes later. I have enhanced my vocabulary to include horses and saddles and other essential words! I am also quite good ant interpreting menus and know the local restaurants menus quite well so I don’t starve.

Everyone is watching Ice hockey on TV and it is much more popular then football here.

Work is going quite well for me and I hope I will get another pay rise soon. Unfortunately my boss G. W. has been in England for a week as I would like to discuss courses on England with him and get some arranged.

Tony bought me several English books in Vienna and other I.C.L. people have a stock so I am surviving as far as books are concerned. My knitting is also progressing because Jana and her friend Nadia knit every night and I tend to join them so I am hoping I will finish before next Christmas.

I had better close now as it is nearly dinner time and I must do some Czech. I should be going back to Prague soon. I shall regret it in some ways as I have made a lot of friends here in Brno. Tony says I have become much more self confident having to live in a strange town on my own. I am afraid I am lazy and rely on Tony if he is there whereas I am quite capable of doing things myself. However I still feel I can’t live happily without him so I shall be very glad to be in Prague in March.

Give my love to pussy Nick. I am amazed how long he is living but I know he is very well looked after.

Lots of love to you all

Love e Gillian

The banking system was very complex. While we were in Czechoslovakia we opened up a Swiss bank account and had all our salary sent there. We also opened up a local Czech account at the Narodni Bank. We used this mainly for our local expenses but could transfer money in from Switzerland when required. It took most of a morning to get some money out of the bank involving queuing in at least 3 places, getting official stamps on documents from the finance ministry, and then returning to the bank. We took a book with us and settled down in the foyer waiting for our name to be called once we had registered our desire to withdraw some money. We had not realised that we could live tax free in a limbo between UK and CSSR and this eventually enabled us to save a good sum while we were behind the iron curtain. Another place with a Kafka feel was the alien police. We had to update our visa regularly and the police sat in offices in a long corridor. The doors of these offices were thickly padded from the very top to bottom and side to side (and no handle) and with a notice in several languages saying ‘Do not knock on the door’; chance would have been a fine thing. There was no queuing system so foreign nationals of all types from African students to Arabic workers to Western technicians waited in the corridor ready to spring forward as soon as a door opened which happened at random times. It was a gamble as to which door you chose to wait near. There could be no one in the office you chose and so after an hour or so without the door opening you would move to another door only to find the first one opened as soon as you left and a German business man jumped in front of you.