30th March 1970

Branik

30/03/70

Dear mum and dad

Thank you for the letter

Spring sounds as if it has really arrived in England. We are lulled into a false sense of security here for we had several warm days and then it snowed again.

We had a house full over Easter. R. the operator from I.C.L. who is working on the Incomex stand at the exhibition is still with us, staying for about 3 weeks. Then on Thursday A.R and V.L. arrived from Brno and stayed until Sunday. We managed quite well using the hall as another bedroom as it is quite warm and large.

Last Sunday Tony and I went on a day trip to Kutna Hora. Silver was discovered near there in the fourteenth century and it became a very important town where all the money for the Austrian empire was minted. Many of the buildings date back to this time. We visited the town hall which used to be the mint and had an interesting guided tour. The guide was an elderly lady who spoke perfect English. When we asked her how she learned English she said she had lived in London for two years, in Elgin Crescent where I lived as a student- what a co-incidence! There is also a beautiful gothic cathedral overlooking the river. It was a lovely day and we walked round in the sunshine.

All this week there has been a great panic because of Incomex- the computer exhibition. A.R.  went for an hour on the stand and met some friends from Oxford and arranged to meet them on Saturday and we all went with them. We took them round the old town which was quite near their hotel. Here we saw the famous fourteenth century mechanical clock. Inside the town hall were some very old frescos. Also a tower with a marvellous view of the Prague in all directions. As we stood looking we could see a black cloud approaching and soon there was quite a blizzard with snow everywhere. Afterwards we went back to our flat so Mr and Mrs S. could see what a typical Czech flat was like. They were in Prague for their son’s wedding. He was marrying a Czech girl he met when he was teaching at one of the Czech universities. Their daughter H is in her first year, reading history at Cambridge. We exchanged addresses and they invited us to visit them next time we are in Oxford. They are lovely people-reminded me of you and Dad.

Yesterday our house guests all went with us to visit Karlstein castle. It is set on a hill in beautiful countryside. Inside there were lovely old frescos in the chapel and an old treasure chamber where the crown jewels were kept historically. All the walls of this chamber are coated with gold leaf and encrusted with semi precious stones. We then drove to the river at Slapy and walked in the woods picking pussy willow and catkins. I have done a flower arrangement with dried grasses and a white lily. We were tempted to buy a potted azalea to cheer the flat up, a lovely red one.

The Czechs have a very strange custom at Easter. They sell painted eggs for the girls and sticks with ribbons on for the boys. The boys beat the girl of his choice with the stick and if she accepts him she gives him her eggs. It looks like an old pagan custom to me, but the eggs are in astounding colours and patterns to symbolise spring.

We saw A.R. & V.L. off on the train to Brno and then could not decide what to do. Then someone suggested cards and we sat plying ‘chase the lady’ with R until 2 o clock this morning.

Today we have stayed home doing the washing and cleaning the car and flat. This week we had a letter from Mrs F. saying they are driving to visit us in July or August and bringing Auntie Pat with them- we were quite surprised when we got this letter but we are glad they are willing to make the effort to come. I must finish the washing now and get ready for work tomorrow.

Lots of live to all the family

Gillian and Tony

Ps G.W.  always calls me Gillian you will be pleased to know.

There were many old cars on the road in Czechoslovakia and the Czech were very good at making spare parts to keep them going even though they were long out of production. Because the Germans had suddenly decreed the Czechs should drive on the right during 1939 after they invaded, many of the older residents still looked left when they crossed the road. This caused many accidents and while driving in Prague you had to be aware that older people would suddenly step out in front of your car. They had a system where the old cars that should be in museums were loaned out to people who had the responsibility to keep them in good order. They had a special plaque on the car stating what museum it belonged to as it still trundled round the streets of Prague.

As it was so easy to nearly run over pedestrians, the I.C.L. engineers invented a game where you got points for the type of person you virtually hit. An old person who stepped out in front of you was a low score, younger people and policemen scored higher. It was only a joke and we did not try to hit people but it did happen occasionally through no fault of our own. One engineer scored the highest ever when he ran over the skis of a white clad border guard in no man’s land.

Then followed a trip to the UK. If I remember right Tony had a trip taking one of his customers around computer sites in the UK. With huge restrictions placed on Czechs travelling outside the communist countries and the difficulties in obtaining hard currency to fund a UK visit, research visits to western Computer sites by potential Eastern European customers were very popular. If the host site in the UK was of particular interest to the authorities in (say) a military or a high tech field, it was not unknown for a potential Czech customer who had been courted for many months and whom one might now know rather well, to suddenly require a previously unknown ‘personal assistant’ to accompany them. The ‘assistant’ would arrive, camera in hand and surprisingly knowledgeable in the subject of the visit, and would take photographs of just about anything they saw that might be interesting back home to whoever their real sponsor was. Needless to say that after the visit the ‘assistant’ was rarely seen again.

Computer technology was of special interest to the emerging Russian computer industry.  A colleague was offered a considerable fee if he would bring back from the UK a case of (then) new technology disc read-write heads; he declined. But we were aware that western industrial ‘know how’ was a prime target for some of the ‘assistants’ and translators who went on the many pre-sales visits to the UK.

 Gill had been booked for a training course but developed tonsillitis on the plane to UK and went to Coventry so her mum could look after her. After she  got better she went on one course for a week at Cookham. These sort of things happened very quickly in I.C.L. so you could be told to get on a plane and go somewhere with very little warning. So there will be only one letter in April