13th july 1970

Branik

13/07/70

Dear Mum and Dad

I have just done all the washing and watered the flowers. Your plant’s flowers have died but it is making several new shoots and hopefully might flower again. My window box is just coming into flower and the first nasturtiums are out and the marigolds are budding. It was very hot today and the sun is just setting like a red ball behind the hills opposite.

We went to Brno last weekend and guess what? Tony played football. He did quite well considering his lack of experience but is suffering as a result with all his muscles aching. There was a swimming pool next to the football ground and we all went for a swim afterwards. On Sunday we went out to Brno dam with A and V and sunbathed for a couple of hours. Again it was very hot.

I have to get up at 4.30 tomorrow as I am going to Ostrava on a disc course for 3 days and the plane leaves at 6.10 in the morning. Next weekend we are going to Brno again for A and V’s wedding.

We heard from Tony’s mum and Dad and they are bringing Auntie Kath with them as well. I think we will be camping outside the flat! We have booked a Hotel in the giant mountains for 3 days during their stay.

The other evening we drove into town and walked over and around Charles Bridge for the first time. It is a pity I was not fitter when you were here as we could have gone out more in the evenings.

All the theatres are closed for the summer but open air theatres have sprung up in all the parks.

I had better close now. Sorry this letter is so short. Give my love to all the family

Gillian and Tony

Gill and Tony had their first steak tartare after the football match and found raw beef surprisingly tasty! The match was between I.C.L. and one of our customers. What we did not realise was that the Czech football league was based on industries rather than towns so the customer’s team were of a high standard and easily thrashed us.

The number of tourists in 1970 was very small. We were almost the only people walking on Charles bridge. I remember being told that the mortar for the bridge was made using the whites of duck eggs which is why it has lasted so long. Most of the tourists came from other Eastern European countries. When we were staying in the Tatra Mountains with mum and dad there was a package holiday of Russians, the women still wearing traditional costumes with headscarves, thick multi-layered skirts and baggy blouses in bright colours. They were very noisy and full of excitement and I guess it must have been the first time they had left Russia or even their local village.

6th July 1970

A YEAR IN PRAGUE JULY

6/7/70

Dear Mum and Dad

Thank you for the nice long letter that arrived today full of news about friends and relations. We were very pleased to hear about Frieda’s baby- I will send her a card. We also had a letter from Auntie Dorothy with all the news from Yeovil. Your express letter has not arrived yet but it is only Monday so a bit early to receive it. We are pleased our holiday is settled. Tony was upset as he would have travelled quicker to Corsica but I would like to see something of Austria and Italy on the journey rather than driving nonstop all day. We have 10 days on Corsica and I think it will be enough to get to know the island. We only had 7 days in Fuenterrabia and it felt like home. However I think Cooks were very bad making you pay for the boat tickets in advance when they may not be able to provide them. Imagine it happening in any other industry. I did not like the sound of the insects in Sardinia- I hope there are less in Corsica.

I am sorry we have not had time to write but I did manage a letter to Paula which I expect you will have read. We had a hectic time driving to Nuremburg and doing all the shopping last weekend. We finally bought a nice tent called the ‘Tahiti’ which sleeps 3 to4 people, so the brochure says but anyway two adults can use it quite comfortably. The tent itself is 10 foot square with an 8foot by 6 foot 6 sleeping compartment which is mosquito proof. It has two windows, a cooking area with washable walls and a plastic roof to keep out the rain. We were very thrifty and went round all the shops comparing the prices of gas stoves, air beds, sleeping bags etc. In the end we had just enough money for a rubber inflatable boat which is now our pride and joy. It is possible to fit an outboard motor to it but at the moment it is propelled by a pair of oars. We had our cars serviced and were shocked at the bill for the Daf -£15 for a service and wheels balanced. We found that his included an hour’s labour for the mechanic to drive to another garage and wait for them to fit in the wheel balancing. We were annoyed by this but they would not reduce the bill.

Nuremburg is a very interesting old city with old castle walls and a modern shopping centre. We treated ourselves to a Chinese meal and an Italian Pizza while we were there. I did not have time to shop for clothes but my old clothes will be OK for camping and boating. It was very nice weather last weekend and I was almost melting on the car seat driving home.

On Sunday we had to try out the tent and drove up the Vltava but not as far as Slapy. We crossed the river by an iron bridge and found a track on the other side. It was quite amusing trying to erect the tent as the instructions were all in German and the pictures seemed to gain and lose poles as they progressed. Actually it is quite simple once you know how. We ended up with 3 spare poles and spent some time wondering where they went until we realised they were for the canopy. We couldn’t resist cooking a meal on our gas stove in our new saucepans. We also tried out the boat and it was really good fun. It was very hot so it was lovely to lie back in the boat and trail my hands in the water whilst Tony paddled.  We had a few arguments about the best way to propel and steer the boat but had developed a good technique by the end of the day.

When we got home we had an unpleasant surprise because the Daf had two flat tyres with needles sticking in them. We called the police and a young officer came round and said it was a common occurrence. Luckily we got them mended as we did not fancy getting the wheels balanced again. The poor Daf is in the wars as I grazed a hub cap on a high curb in a garage- the curb was about a foot high!

Monday and Tuesday of last week I had to go to Brno which again meant a lot of travelling but I had a good time while I was there. On Thursday we went to V.C. for dinner and had a good evening boring them with our holiday films in Slovakia.

On Friday we had the monthly meeting which is why we did not phone. We had just left the office when you rang. P answered and thought you were Czech because you were speaking so slowly.

K.R spent the night with us as her husband was away and she does not like sleeping in her flat on her own.

I must close now as Tony is making the bed and is very tired. I will write again soon.

Love Gillian & Tony.

We really had it quite easy being able to go to Germany and Austria to shop. The contrast with Czechoslovakia was very marked and we wandered round the department stores in Nuremburg like children at Christmas. We would come back to Prague stocked up with food for the next few weeks. Some things like cut flowers were extremely expensive in Czechoslovakia. It was quite normal to take a single rose to the host of a party rather than a bouquet.

Making the bed was a daily task as we slept in the living room on one of the ubiquitous sofa beds. The bedroom in our flat only had a narrow single bed which we used to keep our clothes in and for the occasional visitor.

One of the new ideas in computers at that time was the ability to multi-program. Inputting records from tapes was slow so while that processes was carrying on the central processor was largely idle. Reading punched cards and paper tapes was even slower and this was the method of inputting all programmes and data initially. The newer operating systems allowed another programme to run while data was being read or written. I think the system 4 computers could theoretically run 16 programmes at one time but rarely got above three, nonetheless a major step forward for its day. The operating system for the System 4 machines was called ’multijob’ later to be replaced by the superior ‘J’  We all felt it was superior to IBM’s DOS. It made solving problems in machine-level code and ‘core dumps’ when the computer crashed much more complex as you had to find out which programme was active when the fault occurred. The operating system had to be fine tuned to reflect the mix of programmes submitted by the user. Anyone out there remember this more clearly than Gill does?

27th JUNE 1970

27/06/70

Dear Mum and Dad

I don’t think I have had a letter from you yet but I did have a nice long letter from Pauline which I must reply to.

I hope Dad’s quite recovered- strong in eye and tooth again! Tony has a cold at present but appears to be getting better.

We had a good time last weekend driving back from Holland. It is much easier to travel long distances in the new VW and we are very pleased with it. It is a pity we did not have it when you were with us as it is much roomier than the Daf.

We stopped in Bonn on the way home. We were quite bemused by all the shops full of good things. We made a pig of ourselves with strawberries and cherries and I bought a brand new handbag in bright yellow. We also looked at tents which are quite cheap compared with here however they did not have the smaller ones in stock. There are also very nice camp beds, gaz stoves etc and so we are going on a spending spree this weekend coming. We are going to Nuremburg tomorrow to get both cars services so we will have all day Friday and Saturday morning to go shopping. Tony has got his heart fixed on one of those inflatable speed boats but I am not sure the money would stretch so far. We must also look for a suitable birthday present for D and a wedding present for A and V.

Work goes on as usual. I am going to Brno on Monday and Tuesday next week. It will be good to see all my friends again. We went for a walk last night on the slope opposite the flat and picked a whole bunch of wild flowers; meadow sweet, harebells scabious, several forms of campion, dog roses, yarrow, vetch and chickory. I have arranged them with Tony’s wood from Slapy which has dried out to a lovely silver grey colour.

Not much more has happened. We had a letter from Mrs F thanking you for your post card as if you might still be here!

I had better close now. Love to all at home

Gillian and Tony

When we went to Czechoslovakia it was to satisfy our desire to find out what other countries were like to live in. We did not realise how well off we would be! We did not pay tax in the UK or Czechoslovakia. Tax rates were very high in the UK at that time. Secondly we were paid expenses for many things unimaginable today. Our rent and utility bills were paid and our travelling expenses plus meal allowances if we travelled to another town or country. We were able to buy our cars tax free at Schiphol airport. I remember the DAF 44 cost £500 and the VW ’Variant’ estate car around £800. We used our savings from selling our flat plus the money we had accumulated in the first 7 months working overseas. Living abroad certainly gave our income a big boost in these early years of our marriage. Plus we had the ability to travel round Europe and behind the iron curtain, to stay in interesting places on our way to and from England and take holidays in Czechoslovakia and on the Mediterranean. It was a very enriching period of our lives and gave us a different perspective on life in the UK. By the time we returned to the UK we were less materialistic, able to enjoy & savour more basic entertainments and pastimes, & much more aware that a wide variety of food choices in the shops was neither necessary nor to be found in a good many countries that are today part of the EU.

16th June 1970

Branik

16/06/70

Dear Mum and Dad

It was lovely to speak to you on Monday. I am so glad you enjoyed your holiday with us -we did as well. I am sitting on the balcony after tea writing this. It has been boiling hot all day and now I can hear a thunder storm approaching. We have been very busy since you left.

On Saturday we did the shopping, cleaned the car but I left the washing till Sunday. In fact it took us nearly all day to finish the washing but it dried very quickly in the sun. Around 4 o’clock we took a walk in a different direction from the one we went with you, through the woods and fields. In the evening we went to the pictures and saw ‘the Chase’ a film about an escaped convict.

We were pleased to hear we can fetch the new car from Amsterdam on Friday. We will fly there on Friday afternoon and travel home on Saturday and Sunday. We shall look at tents in Germany on the way home. The following weekend we will drive to Germany in both cars and have them serviced- the joys of having two cars!

Today we had some literature from France on Corsica including camping sites so I guess we will get some from Italy on Sardinia soon so do not worry if you cannot find anything to send us. Thank you for arranging the tickets for us and don’t forget to fill out a cheque for the money.

I am very busy at work at the moment and may have to go to Brno next week. I keep pausing as I write this to watch the lightening which is playing on the hillside the other side of the Vltava. We have a grandstand view from our balcony.

Thursday

Unfortunately I spent all last night watching the thunderstorm which went right over the top of our flat. It was terrific like a firework display.

By the way did either of you leave a Schaeffer pen a black one at our flat because one has suddenly appeared in one of our drawers?

I had better close now or you will never get this letter.

Love to all the family

Gillian and Tony

We did have a lovely holiday with Mum and Dad and have the films to prove it. Dad had some problem with his tooth and his eyes. I remember he went to a special clinic for foreigners and got both sorted. Then in the high Tatras he became somewhat short of breath and was diagnosed with angina when he got back to the UK but never had it after that which was strange. It could have been the altitude. He was still smoking his pipe at that time. The mountains were lovely in the summer with lots of walks that were colour coded. You could buy maps with the coloured routes on them and the sign posts not only told you where the footpath led but also how long it should take you to reach your destination.

The computers were sold at that time with a certain number of man hours engineering and programming support. In Brno Gill had been doing systems work, helping the tractor company write it first suite of stock control programmes. In those days it was not so normal for a company to use a pre-written software package (although some sound packages were available but somewhat inflexible), bespoke computer applications would more commonly be designed and programmed from scratch. The first programmes in the suite were data vet programmes. Computers were so oversold at that time as the answer to all problems that it was difficult to make the customer realise that data would never be 100% correct, however much you tried to programme for every eventuality. You could not eliminate human error; if someone said there were 10 spare parts when there were only 9 then the stock totals would be wrong. Czechs were very keen on theory, and Gill can remember endless discussions on the best way to add codes to data to allow the computer to check the data had not been incorrectly input.

The likelihood of the computer crashing also had to be addressed with a grandfather, father, son system of magnetic tapes where all the data was stored at that time, so if a crash did occur or a tape got corrupted you had an older version of the tape and only had to rerun the system a limited number of times to get back to the current data, albeit that it might take some hours!. I seem to remember that if the older tapes had been stored outside the air conditioned/temperature controlled computer room, further time would be lost waiting for them to acclimatise in the computer room. Does anyone else reading this remember those security procedures?