28th March 1971

There is a big gap in the letters next probably some were lost and Gill went to the UK for training courses.

C/O the British embassy

Boulevard Marshal Tolbukhin

Sofia

28/03/71

Dear Mum and Dad,

As you can see I arrived safely in Sofia. It was lovely to see you all again. Tony had missed me and does not seem to be so good at looking after himself as he used to be. It must be because he has been married for too long now. Yesterday he went to Berlin for a week’s course. The correct spare part for the Volkswagen arrived from Germany and the garage is trying to mend it at this moment. Tony wants to drive to Germany in a couple of weeks when he has another course so that a Volkswagen garage can check it over and make sure everything is alright. I have just finished cleaning the Daf- it was filthy.

I have courses booked in England in May and July. The first is a one week course starting May 3^rd so I shall be home for Nanny’s birthday. I hope Dad won’t mind if his present is a week late. Tony and I both have courses starting July 5^th but in different places, Tony will be at Cookham and me in London. The following week I have a three day course so I shall probably go back on the BEA flight on Thursday 15^th July.

Our new secretary Jan .H. arrived on Thursday and she is very nice, I am pleased to have her company while Tony is away. Yesterday we went up into the mountains together after seeing Tony onto the plane. We skied, walked and had a meal in the mountain restaurant. My face got quite burnt by the sun. We have had a hectic social life lately so I shall be pleased to have a quiet weekend. Tonight I shall have dinner with Jan H. and then go to the British Embassy to see a film, a detective film this time.

I am wondering if you had a good time in Huddersfield and if Paula, David and the children went with you. I hope Paula has the baby before July so I can see it when I come home.

The weather is quite warm now and the grass is growing in the park opposite our flat, however there is still snow up in the mountains. They were having an international ski competition last time we went up there and we watched the giant slalom for a while. At the moment Sofia is very gay with lots of coloured lights everywhere, I think they are hosting a Communist party conference here next month.

Monday evening.

I have just realised I can’t live without Tony either. First the windscreen wipers on the Daf were taken off by us at the airport so no one could pinch them. I found I did not know how to put them on again and of course it rained all day. This evening I came home to find all the lights in our block of flats were off. Gradually everyone got their lights back except me. Rather than spend an evening in the dark I went to the American embassy to see a film. Mr and Mrs H from ILO came back home with me and restored my lights by screwing back a fuse which had been left out on the landing fuse box. I must talk to the flat chief tomorrow and see if there is some subtle reason for leaving me in the dark. I don’t believe I could be responsible for fusing the whole block as I was not home at the time.

Must go to bed now as it is quite late.

Lots of love

Gillian

So the Volkswagon story took another twist. We eventually got the correct spare part from Germany and the American diplomatic garage willing to fit it. They had partial success. We could drive the car but only in first and second gear!

The fact the lights were not restored to my flat after the blackout was probably a reflection of the attitude of Bulgarians towards foreigners in general. We found them a very xenophobic nation.

The training week Tony spent in West Berlin proved to be far more eventful than expected. The East German Airlines (InterFlug?) Ilyushin plane landed in East Berlin where, after a long wait in customs and passport control, people destined  for West Berlin  were eventually driven across a very drab East Berlin by coach, through a heavily guarded Berlin Wall, and into the complete contrast of a vibrant modern West Berlin. It was a very mild sunny late afternoon when, after checking into his hotel Tony found himself taking a pleasant stroll down Kurfursen dam in central Berlin. There were many people out enjoying the early evening, and Tony recalls seeing quite a few hippies sitting on the pavement edge selling trinkets, and became half aware of there being rather more police around than expected.

Amongst the traffic was an old VW Beetle carrying life sized straw effigy of a man in a suit and a placard in German with words to the effect that ‘the mayor was a pig’. The figure fell off the car nearby and someone dropped a lighted match on it. The smoke and fire soon attracted a large number of people and before long members of the crowd started chanting the placard slogan. At the same time (seemingly out of nowhere) a large number of riot police appeared on the opposite side of the street. Tony noticed several surprisingly well dressed men  (rioters or police?) with briefcases (out of which a metal tool emerged) at the back of the crowd of onlookers levering up small cube rock cobbles from the pavement. After just a few volleys of cobbles being thrown at the riot police from the back of the crowd, the police drew their batons, folded down their visors & suddenly charged and fired tear-gas towards the now substantial number of people gathered in the street. The effect of the gas was almost instantaneous as the gas canisters slid along the road & pavement towards Tony. The whole crowd started running away from the police, tears streaming & eyes burning. Extra riot police were beginning to block off side streets as more people joined the crowd of fleeing pedestrians. Tony eventually dived into a basement discotheque (think it was called the Eden Club) and took refuge for the next two hours before finding his way back to the hotel. Thankfully, it was Tony’s only ever experience of tear-gas and being swept up in a riot.

Back in Sofia it was time for Tony’s first progress meeting with the ILO computer site.  The management Training Centre was staffed by both Bulgarians and foreign UN employees/consultants. It was a large establishment carrying out various forms of management training for the whole country. The Bulgarian Director worked alongside an American UN Head of Mission. Unlike the ICC, the IT systems functioned efficiently and the progress meetings were largely routine, although Tony did note that the meetings were always attended by a quiet well suited man who didn’t seem to have any function other than keeping an eye on the Director and the UN staff. The ‘quiet man’ even accompanied the Director on a UK training visit we set up, and it was rumoured that he was actually a major in the Bulgarian Secret Service.