Day in London with the NCC micro advisory committee and my private stockbroker as Martin Banks finds a publisher for me to co-write a micro history with him as record numbers of miners drift back to work and the great Mars Bar poison was a hoax
An early call and brief chance to scan the morning paper before a toast and honey breakfast. A quick wash and shave (I having had a bath and hair wash yesterday evening) then dressed ready to set off. A cold and foggy morning and dull day. To St Neots railway station where I catch the 8.02am London train and spend the journey reading up on past minutes and reports of the NCC. From Kings Cross to Holborn by underground and then to walk a fair way along High Holborn to New Feather Lane and the NCC Building. A number of interesting Building Society Branches along High Holborn and I undertake to pop in on the way back to compare the rates. There is no longer a standard interest rate and you have to keep abreast of the best investment deals. I arrive at the NCC in time for the 9.30am Microcomputer Advisory Committee Meeting and enjoy a long but involved meeting on standard software environments, Export Systems, Microsystem centre activities and also on industry policy. On this latter point I am offered a joint meeting with NCC Director, David Fairbairn and Salford Vice Chancellor (and NEDO/NCC Chairman) Prof John Ashworth, to prepare for the PITCOM debate next month. We also exchange views on the BT/IBM rejection and remain friendly.
A nice buffet lunch and then I check (by remote telephone interrogation) by answering machine and note, amongst others, a message from Nicholas de Zoete about BT applications. I decide to drop round to Finsbury Circus and meet him to take advice. It seems all now agree that the BT offer will open at a good premium and so I discuss applying for 250,000 at 50p part paid for 130p share. After partial allotment that should give me about 125,000 accepted it I make applications in five equal portions for family members. My commitment is, therefore, £62-125K. As minors, my family shares will have to be held by de Zoete nominees, which Nicholas is prepared to do and thus avoids also the risk of rejection of multiple applications. This settled, I go home by tube, train and car; studying the BT prospectuses as I go to ascertain the details. I heard today from Martin Banks who left a message that he had found a publisher willing to back the idea of a microcomputer industry history book. I also returned a phone call of Computing’s Olive Tucker and commented on Geoffrey Pattie’s spending moratoriums on industrial support which is a disaster. News tonight of a claimed record return of striking miners (nearly 23000). The Mars Bar campaign seemed to have been a hoax, which I expected, and the first statements on the Anglo-Irish talks on Northern Ireland are made with careful restraint. Late tonight I was out checking on the vandals. Friend ‘Paddy’ was restrained but muttering but surprisingly a friend leaving Jenny’s house with Andrew fired missiles from a catapult at both 39 Gordon Road and the dovecote on the side of 6 Willow Close! I challenged Andrew after his friend had driven off with his girl but he denied it.