To our BMMG LAN meeting at Chris Shelton’s after my hotel stay and then home for lunch and to catch up with calls and news and then feed the ducks and doves before reading some poetry to Debbie and writing my journal as Francis Pym comes out against the Government austerity and interest rates rise to 13 ½ % whilst US Savings and loans institutions collapse and Iran turns nasty
Awake at 7.00m and with my morning call, but had to wait 10/15 mins for my continental breakfast to arrive and so did not tip the waiter. A cold morning and slow start to the day, but eventually washed, dressed and packed so as to check out. A long walk via the pedestrian underpasses to the car on a bitterly cold morning. Lots of down-and-outs shuffling around, as many of them use the Marble Arch benches to sleep rough. Eventually to the car and across London to the Angel area and to park off of White Lion Street. A quarter hour late for the BMMG LAN participants meeting at Shelton’s premises, but the meeting was already in full throw and a good few hours’ discussion. Digital Microsystems, Shelton and LDR Systems will thrash out the specification; a programme was agreed in stages with rough costs; and meetings with the DTI suggested to press the argument. The meeting finishes by 12.00noon and I use Chris’s phone to check for messages and call back the Engineer Magazine, before calling Cahner’s, the exhibition people, to cancel my afternoon appointment to save hanging around for a few hours. Off by car and home by 2.00pm for a sandwich and tea lunch, which was refreshing, and then to the office to check the numerous messages and open a fairly thin mail.
Calls to Isherwood to compare notes on recent publicity, then the secretariat to request a report copy and up-to-date membership list, and Nigel to check on his contacts with Acorn. No luck in arranging the Acorn meeting, but a late afternoon of other business, before quitting at 5.30pm for a tea of overdone sausages with the family. Out to feed the very hungry ducks and bring in a pile of logs before lighting the fire. A nice time reading Debbie some children’s poetry from the old book that I had bought and then to catch up on these last two days’ journal, before settling down to some reading. News tonight of an escaped prisoner holed out in a van with a sawn-off shot gun, which is a merry distraction. Francis Pym directly attacks the government budget today in the most outspoken criticism yet of the conservative policies by one of their own. The opposition continue to deny this “budget for jobs”. The banks cut interest rates by ½ % today to 13 ½ %, but the building societies will put up rates tomorrow by a full 1% and the pound is up to $1.15c. Controversy in the US over the collapse of some savings and loan institutions such as Home State. In Iran all foreigners are leaving as the sentiment turns nasty over the alleged use by Iraq of mustard gas and nerve gas in the Gulf War