23rd March 1970

Branik

23/3/70

Dear mum and dad

It was lovely to speak to you on Thursday. As usual we are getting all the brochures on different cars before we make a decision but I think we will buy an estate car so we can go camping in the future.

We have a big exhibition of computers in Prague for the next 3 weeks so both Tony and I will be busy. We are putting up one of the computer operators R. in our flat during this period so I shall be in training for catering for more than 2 people. Tony just asked me to tell you to put the money from the building society into your current account if possible.

I don’t expect Tony will have much time to spare when he is in England as he will be escorting Czech customers round various installations (we don’t know where yet) In fact we always expect last minute changes  with I.C.L.

G.W. has gone to London this weekend and will try to book me on a course as soon as possible so I should know in a week or so when I will be coming home.

We are both very tired today as it was the I.C.L. monthly meeting on Friday and we had the usual I.C.L. party last night and did not get to bed until 4 am. As a result we have not done much today apart from shopping and washing. I hope we will go for a drive in the country tomorrow as nearly all the snow has melted now. Unfortunately as it thaws all the roads become terrible. There is a lot of new building near our flat and the lorries have churned up the local roads. The Daf gets dirty very quickly.

I was quite sad to leave Brno as I have made a lot of friends there. Still I have invitations to go and stay and I hope some of our Czech friends can visit us in Prague.

I am getting spoilt having a washing machine here- I did manage to turn two of Tony’s shirts blue washing them with my pants. He will have to buy some new ones in England. Clothes are very expensive here- a dress can cost between £6 and £10 and are often of poor quality, (that’s about half weeks salary in the UK, let alone how many months salary it is here!.)

I had a pay assessment on a plane from Brno to Prague. I happened to be on the same plane as G.W. and as he was on the inside seat he could not escape. I badgered him until he consented to give me an assessment there and then. I dare say I will get a negative rise after that. I won’t hear the results for a couple of months. Our finances are beginning to look up now but it is difficult to keep track of three bank accounts each in three different countries.

After you have been in a country for a while everything seems normal. Things you found strange when you arrived you soon take for granted. I am sure I am forgetting what England is like. I am quite used to queuing in shops, not being able to buy things at certain times (there are oranges here at present) and hoarding goods when they are in the shops. E.g. if you see soft toilet paper you buy about 30 rolls to insure against the days when there will be none.

I am rapidly running out of air mail paper and will have to borrow some from someone in I.C.L. One gets used to borrowing from each other out here.

The main thing is we are still enjoying ourselves at work and in our spare time

I must find out where the riding schools are in Prague and then I will be really happy.

I must close now- no more paper.

Love to you both and Nanny

God bless you

Tony and Gillian.

Still in our twenties we had the arrogance of youth and often completely failed to see the struggles our neighbours had in life. After 42 years we went back to Prague this year and looked up our old flat. As we took a photograph of the building, a lady of our age came to her balcony and we shouted a greeting and told her we had lived there in 1970. She joined us outside the flats and after a while she remembered us and later sheepishly admitted that when we left later in the year she had taken our rubbish bags and retrieved all of our discarded clothes, and they had served herself and her husband well. Life was very hard for the Czechs.

Computer Exhibitions in Eastern Europe were by no means uncommon. The largest was the Polish Plovdiv Fair, but we never managed to get to that. The Prague exhibition was nonetheless a revelation. Firstly, assuming that time off work just to hang around an exhibition stand would be an easy and relaxing experience  was a big mistake. It was full-on hard work, meeting and greeting visitors, constantly explaining the technicalities of our products, and was tough on even young feet. But above all you had to be very aware of who might turn up. Unlike the UK, access to Communist government ministers and senior decision makers was not that difficult. You could go to their offices and wait in turn for your chance to raise an issue. Might take a while. So too at exhibitions where the unaccompanied mother with two young children in tow, could well be (and on one occasion in my experience was), a vice minister of technology in the government.