18th March 1970

18/3/70

Branik

Dear mum and dad

I am at home ill again this time due to a visit to one of the best hotels in Prague. I went to the International Hotel on Monday for my lunch with one of the engineers and got food poisoning! I diagnosed my illness which was stomach pains, diarrhoea , temperature and lethargy as Clostridium Welchii and realised it would only last a couple of days. Yesterday I felt awful but today I am much better and I am just cooking spaghetti as I feel hungry again. This is the first time either of us have had a problem with the food here- the moral must be to eat in cheaper restaurants!

Thank you for your letter which arrived in 5 days- I hope you have some of my letters by now. I must close to catch the post

Love to all the family and pussy Nick- even if he is a naughty pussy.

Hoping to see you soon

Love tony and Gillian

The cultural life in Prague was fantastic. For us the tickets were extremely cheap. You could go to the national opera or a concert for very little money. For no more than the cost a simple café meal, we went to see Don Giovani at the Tyl Theatre (now renamed) on Ovocni Trh that was the very theatre where Mozart first performance of this opera was given.

Travel on the trams and buses were well organised and affordable even to the Czechs. The carriages were very old and some should have been in a museum rather than still on the road. The Czechs were very good engineers and could keep a machine working for ever or so it seemed.

Tony tells me of a mysterious customer he visited this month in the Prague suburbs. They have a fairly large ICL 1900 computer running situated in a grand 18^th Century suburban villa that looks as if it might well have been owned by a rich Banker. Without exception, whenever we approach this site for a progress meeting or engineering maintenance up impressive steps to the front door, we are kept waiting outside the large double door for at least 15 minutes whilst the Czech technicians inside ran-down and remove the programs they were running and fired-up some innocuous accounting routines. Although the brass plate by the door called it a ‘Research Institute’ or something like that, it was the common view amongst our engineers and programmers that it was really the Czech Secret Service computer centre. After sanitising the computer, we are let in.

Like all computers allowed to be sold by ICL, it had to have been approved by the NATO ‘Co-Com’ Committee that sat in Paris. In the height of the cold war the West was desperate not to give Communist Countries access to western technology that could be exploited for strategic or military use. The Russian made computers were, by reputation, unreliable and at the time fell far behind the sophistication and speed of western computers. Tortuous Co-Com negotiations and long justifications would be undertaken, taking many months, just to gain permission to ship a computer behind the Iron Curtain. In good faith ICL had gained permission to sell this particular computer to what we now all locally suspected had been a ‘front’ organisation for the Czech Secret service. We could never be sure but it was certainly a very suspicious and secretive organisation, showing no signs of being vaguely like a ‘Research Institute’.

8th march 1970

Branik

8/3/70

Dear mum and Dad,

It was lovely to speak to you today. I have felt like talking to you all week. I am sorry my letters have not arrived. I expect it is partly due to the bad weather.

We had snow again on Wednesday as you did but the last two days have been thawing and the sun is shining brightly. I am just cooking roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for our Sunday meal (it is 5.30pm now). After I telephoned we went to the gallery of modern art in the old town. The old town itself is very interesting with lots of winding streets and old buildings. There are very many art galleries in Prague and although we have visited 4 there are still plenty more to see. The modern gallery is very good with many Czech artists you do not see in England. Tony has been inspired and is painting at the moment with the paints I bought him for Christmas. Tonight we are going to the British Embassy to see a film, ‘The Anniversary’ . Both the British and American embassy have film clubs and show very good films.

As I was ill at the beginning of the week it was not worth going to Brno so my boss sent me to a customer in Prague. It is the one I am hoping to transfer to at the end of March. I will not go back to Brno except to collect my things and hand over the work I was doing. Working with the new customer UAVT is not so difficult, mainly answering customer’s questions or referring them to London if I can’t answer them. I have some time to myself to read manuals and learn some new things. It is quite good as they finish work at 4 o clock and I can do a bit of shopping and cook dinner before Tony comes home at 6 o’clock.

Tony has moved office this week to Pankrac, the address you have already also the telephone number you have so if anything urgent happens you can contact Tony there. Tony is pleased to have me home and I am feeding him as he got a bit thin while I was away but I am getting fatter than ever.

I am trying to persuade Tony it would be a good idea if I had my own car but I am not sure if I am succeeding or not. Tony takes me to work in the morning but I come home on the tram and bus and as it is the other side of Prague it takes about an hour.

On Thursday we went to the pictures to see ‘La Strada’ an Italian film by Fellini- of course we could not understand a word but enjoyed it just the same.

In the afternoon we drove to see LB and his family with their 3 children aged 4,6 and 7 and had a nice afternoon and evening with them. Their children are very bright and I was persuaded to read ‘Pinocchio’ to them which we all enjoyed. I felt quite envious of their nice family. Two of the I.C.L. wives are pregnant at the moment so the Czech air must be very fertile.

Prague looks lovely in the sunshine and all the Czechs were out Sunday evening along the riverside for an after dinner stroll. All the galleries and museums are open on Sunday and are well patronised by the Czechs- not like the English.

I have a resolve that now we are both in Prague we must get out more. I have hopes of learning to skate, playing tennis and going riding but I don’t know if any of these will materialise. Each month there is a very good booklet which comes out giving all the concerts, plays, films and exhibitions for the month. For a capital city it is fairly easy to get tickets for these events so we should be culturally stimulated.

Love,

Gill & Tony.

One of the features of life in Eastern Europe was the role of the ‘fixer’. I am not sure how you found a fixer in the first place or whether you were allocated one by the authorities. They probably worked for the secret services in the country you were living in. Their role was to smooth the red tape, to find you offices for your company or flats for your staff. It was a strange twilight world we lived as we did not have any official status in the country, paid no taxes, business or personal. But we were needed by the countries we worked in so they turned a blind eye to our presence, gave us visas to stay which had to be renewed regularly, and did not harass us at all. The fixer got round the regulations and found a way to enable us to stay without being there officially.

Tony has started to visit other customers he is supporting. The office files have given him little background so he is being introduced to each computer site by the ICL Salesman or Senior Engineer. One of the first was the Economic University (just near the Narodni Divadlo – National Theatre overlooking the river Vltava). They had an ex-English Electric/Leo-Marconi/Elliot computer. It seemed to be well established and running along just fine so the meeting with the Professor who was responsible soon turned to his pet hobby, collecting fungi. We learnt later in the year, as we saw Czechs returning to their Prague apartments on Sunday evenings carrying large black sacks full of a bewildering variety of fungi, that this was a major Czech preoccupation, and a significant contribution to feeding the family. Being a Professor and relatively elderly, he had had many years to study the subject and had taken his edible fungi hunting to a far higher degree. Over the years he had plotted the migration of his favourite fungi in the woods and fields near his country weekend cabin, and could show exactly where he could find any particular variety. Sworn to secrecy, I was only allowed to see these jealously guarded secret maps on the assumption that being a foreigner I would have nothing other than an academic interest in their hidden treasures.

Not long afterwards we were introduced to a restaurant on Dukelskych Hrdyna called the ‘Houbavaria’ (?) that had a menu of all types of edible fungi. On our first return trip to Prague after 42 years we were delighted to see the restaurant with the same facia-sign still there, although as were passing in the tram we were unable to verify that it still specialised in just fungi dishes as it had in 1970.

3rd march 1970

Branik

Praha

3/3/70

Dear Mum and Dad

Thank you for the 2 letters received this week, one from 15^th and 17^th of last month.

We have been finding out all the nice places to visit when you come here on holiday. I am enclosing a lot of the day trips available from Prague. Perhaps you could let me know which ones you and dad would like to go on. I have just looked at the day trip page only to find they don’t start until June 15^th. Still I will enclose them anyway and make some enquiries at Chedok and see if there are any trips in May. I think we shall probably go to Slovakia for the second week as the countryside is beautiful. There are caves, castles, museums to visit, fishing in the rivers, lovely walks (driftwood collecting) alpine flowers, lakes and mountains. You might like to write to the Czechoslovakian travel Bureau in Oxford St. This will be your holiday so you must tell us exactly what you want to do.

I am hoping I may be coming to England for a 3 week course before your holiday in which case we can discuss the matter then.

We are going to write to Mr. B. our solicitor, as I.C.L. suddenly said they won’t pay our legal (house selling) fees. They have taken 2 months to come to this conclusion - not telling us a word in the meantime. Poor Mr. B. must be wondering where his money is. Of course it’s that Mr. W. in ICL HQ again - we intend to have a fight over it and not give up without a struggle. Anyway perhaps you could phone Mr B and explain the situation. He will get his money soon. I think the company must pay if it is in one of their instructions that all moving expenses etc are paid by the company and other people who came to Czechoslovakia have had their legal fees paid. I feel like asking you to put a bill in from Loviett’s for estate agent fees.

I am in Prague at the moment as I am a bit unwell. Nothing serious just a cold has caused my glands to swell. It is probably all psychological because I don’t want to go back to Brno. Greg W. is supposed to be going to Brno this week to say how desperately I am needed in Prague. I hope I shall be here for good soon.

I will give you a list of things we need nearer the holiday time. Don’t worry about our old clothes though. Czechoslovakia is quite a surprising country and there aren’t many things you can’t buy here. There are things we might like from England, branded goods like Coldrex and Strepcils. I guess they are available here but I don’t know what they are called. I am OK for tights at present. The thing you will need is some English tea. Czech tea is very weak and served with lemon. I hope Dad can adapt to the diet- I think he will like the fried potatoes that are served with every meal.

Sometimes I feel I would like to transport the whole family here. I don’t miss England all that much but I do miss family and friends. I must have a look at our cine films soon to remind myself what you all look like. I do hope I can come to England soon and see you all. Most people working here manage to get home fairly regularly.

We have had quite a few short letters from Mrs F. this week and my birthday parcel from her arrived today having taken two months to get here. I also heard from C. C. and her family are well.

Like you I am dying for the spring. When it snows here there is often a good six inches in one go but they manage to keep the roads clear. Tony bought me a bunch of snowdrops this weekend but is has been snowing all weekend until today when the sun is making the reflection so bright it hurts you eyes to look at it.

Tony and I have not done much lately. I went out to T.N.’s flat with A.R. and we cooked ‘coq au vin’ which was delicious. Poor T.N. does not know how to cook at all always having been spoilt by a wife or mother. I am glad Tony can look after himself when I am away.

Last Friday we had our monthly I.C.L., meeting and afterwards an I.C.L. party at C. and M.’s new flat which is only a few minutes away from where we live. They are a nice couple with a two year old daughter.

On Saturday night we went to see ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ which was showing for one day only. We have seen it before but it is so good we enjoyed it a second time.

On Saturday we explored a bit of Prague we did not know, an old castle, whose grounds have been turned into a park. There are fabulous views from the castle walls of the rest of the city. We also went round the municipal gallery but I was beginning to feel a bit tired by this time as the bug I have took hold. I am feeling much better today and will probably go to Brno tomorrow. If not I shall go to the doctor and get some pills to cure me.

Lots of love

Gillian and Tony

It is amazing how quickly we adapted to the ex pat life. We thought nothing of driving across Europe or jumping on a plane or staying at the best hotels in town. However we avoided the ex-pat life centred on the British Embassy. We felt we had nothing in common with the people who worked there. They seem to live in a vaguely Edwardian early 1900’s world of their own. More concerned with cocktail parties and the correct hierarchical seating plans for formal dinners than what was happening in the real world.

We were extremely lucky to meet the Czech people by living in a Czech flat and working with everyday people and we struck up some good friendships in Brno and Prague. Besides letting us know when food shipments had arrived at particular shops in town, our immediate neighbours would invite us in to share a meal or take us to a bar-b-q. Because we had access to preserved & tinned food that locals did not, available to us in the hard currency Tuzek shops or by a swift trip to Nuremburg, our nearest Germany town, we felt guilty at the generosity of our hard pressed Czech neighbours. In the evenings we often glided silently as possible into our parking spot outside our flat and crept up the stairs to avoid the doors opening with a smiling invitation to dinner. The generosity and kindness of our Czech neighbours in this time of severe austerity and Russian occupation was humbling.

The I.C.L. staff were also very similar to us in outlook. Many came from Eastern European origins and had been drawn to work behind the iron curtain to better understand their roots. Others were escaping from difficult marriages whilst others like us just wanted adventure and new experiences. And there were people like us who just wanted to live in and understand a different culture & environment.

 We never felt threatened behind the Iron Curtain, our British passport was like a talisman which conferred invulnerability on us.  The engineers would smuggle computer parts across the borders by leaving copies of playboy on the passenger seat and then offering them to guards in exchange for them ignoring the tape drive in the boot. I guess the authorities tolerated us as they wanted our computers to keep up with western business.

23rd February 1970

Brno 23/2/70

Dear Mum dad and family, Thank you for the letter of the 9th Feb. We have been thinking about our holiday together. I noticed in my diary that 25^th May is a bank holiday and wondered if you both have this holiday? If so you could possibly have an extra day’s holiday on Friday 22 May or Monday 8^th June. When you tell me what flights you are on I can book the hotels for the right days.

We have just spent the weekend in the High Tatras at the world skiing championships and the scenery is lovely. Unfortunately we both had bad colds so we were not feeling very energetic. The ski jump is fantastic in real life much higher than it looks on television. However it is a bit cold standing watching for too long so we went home to bed early. We stayed at a private house in Poprad.

 Poprad itself is not a very nice town- very industrial even though it is right in the middle of some lovely countryside. There is a very good tram ride from Poprad to Strbske Pleso where the championships were held. It goes through the forest and I could see lots of interesting pieces of wood on fallen trees there. There is a lake nearby and rivers for fishing. I am tapping the knowledge of people at work for a list of all the nice places in Slovakia. There seems to be plenty to do- cable cars, rivers and lakes, mountain walks. There are plenty of modern hotels right in the mountains and special alpine flowers grow there.

I am going to Prague on Thursday evening as we have a monthly meeting on Friday. I seem to manage quite well at only being 4 days without seeing Tony.

I was pleased to hear news of Gibby (Mr Gibson our church minister at Limberick wood Baptist church). I always thought he was a fantastic person. Do give him our regards when you see him.

The car seems to be behaving itself at present so I hope that means the end of our bad luck.

I hope you win your boxer dog. It will be company for dad if he retires. Do you know if he will stop work in April or not?

I have not heard from Jane but I expect she is in Ethiopia by now.

I am sorry my writing is so terrible but we got up at 5.30 this morning so Tony could catch his plane and I am feeling rather tired.

Work tends to be very frustrating as it is difficult communicating with people who do not speak English.

The first snowdrops were on sale in the shops today- I think I shall really appreciate spring- living in a country with so much snow. It snowed quite a lot this week but it is thawing at present.

Must close now as I am feeling lazy and have a good book to read. Tony is reading more now I am away from him- he is becoming quite a bookworm

Lots of Love

Gillian and Tony

The Czechs still had steam trains at that time almost everywhere and the smoke from a train could be seen in the distance chugging across the countryside. In other ways the Czechs were ahead of their time and very energy efficient. The local power station on the way to our home in Branik heated many houses in the district and the local swimming pool, so you could swim outside in the winter snow in a heated pool, enveloped in a mist rising from the surface of the outdoor pool. The countryside en-route was markedly different from England because there were almost no hedgerows. The fields came right up to roads which enabled you to see a long distance.

Poprad was covered in a pall of smoke. On arrival we found our way to our ‘Bed & Breakfast’ accommodation in the home of a local family. Our room was comfortable, if a little sparse, and wall-paper being an unavailable luxury, the beige painted walls were highlighted with large stencilled Art Deco abstract coloured patterns. The next morning we could see some some spectacular mountains in the Tatra range towering above the (then) little town of Poprad. The only way up the mountain to the Ski Championships was on a brand new ‘light railway’, constructed specially for the Championships. Unlike most other forms of transport we had encountered behind the Iron Curtain, the stations were pristine, the train carriages spotless and didn’t smell of garlic sausage. Even the railway officials had brand new clothes, and for some reason I particularly remember the ticket collector’s comical rather short brown plastic neck-tie, attached with white elastic.

At the World Ski Championships, the crowd showed what they thought of the Russian invasion by whistling every time a Russian competitor stood at the top of the ski jump hoping to put them off their stride. This was true of international ice hockey matches as well. No one could believe that the majority of Czechs were in favour of the Russians or communism. The people we talked to wanted to be a neutral state between the West and East. This was true of educated Czechs and the ordinary citizens we lived near. I suppose the party members felt differently but with nearly 90% of the population not in the party it signalled a lot of opposition. The protests were very Czech- often using irony rather than violence to get their point of view over. They would paint ‘Intourist’ on the Russian tanks which was the Russian travel company which usually brought Russian tourists to Czechoslovakia. I felt sorry for the Russian soldiers at times. Occasionally people thought we were Russian and then you would never get served in a shop or restaurant. We got used to saying ‘Ja sem angliski ’ to let them know we were English. On the other hand most Czechs were very pro-British as we came into the Second World War because of our treaty with them. We met several English speaking Czechs who had flown with the RAF from England during the war. It was only 25 years from the end of the Second World War so the memories were still fresh for everyone.

A year after the Russian intervention in Czechoslovakia, the tanks, lorries and soldiers were stationed all around the outskirts of the city. Quite unexpectedly one would come across a convoy of tanks in town. I clearly recall driving to work on more than one occasion from our flat in Branik long Razivnovo Nabrezi road bordering the Vltava River, only to encounter a column of Russian Tanks. Eager to get to a meeting on time, I would overtake each tank in turn in my little Daf 44 Dutch car feeling rather superior for some reason. The tank drivers were sufficiently well trained to leave a suitable gap, although I did have a narrow squeeze when on one occasion I overtook just before the narrow rock tunnel at Vysehrad.

If you got in a queue behind a Russian soldier you had a long wait. We can recall waiting in line for a rail ticket behind a Russian, only to find that when he reached the front of the queue a sign was placed in the window saying that the office was now closed and ‘Please join another queue’. The average Russian ‘squady’ we have learnt from more recent discussions with acquaintances from the Russian Federation, had been told that they had been ‘requested’ to enter Czechoslovakia and would be welcomed by the people. So I could think of no more forlorn sight than that of a Russia soldier in uniform trying to hitch-hike on a day’s leave. We saw this several times and absolutely no Czech would stop.