11th October 1971

Monday 11^th October

Sofia

Dear mum and dad

Thank you for your letter which arrived today. That was the first time we heard of mum’s rise and of course we are very pleased-you certainly deserve it. Just try and save a bit of it!

We have had a busy week. All your cards arrived safely for Tony’s birthday. Tony says thank you, especially to Nanny, he was very pleased with the record token; book and record tokens are always very acceptable to us. I will try to write to Paula this week and thank her for the letter. Your parcel still has not arrived but it should be here soon.

Well Mr E MBE arrived on Tuesday. He is the boss of all the European division of ICL With him were Ralph L, head of Eastern European division and Mr L the manager of the production division of ICL. We all had dinner with them at the Hotel Sophia on Tuesday evening. I was seated next to Mr E. He was not all as I expected, a man in his early sixties who was very pleasant to talk to and not at all snobbish for an MBE. I got on very well with him, talking about his family, his grandchildren and he was very interested in Tony’s career so maybe he will do something for us- see what a useful wife I am. After dinner we went downstairs to the Sofia night club where the floor show was terrible- very low standard variety. We did not leave until 2 am.

Tony has been very busy chauffeuring the big boys round and Mr E even came to our flat one evening for coffee- just to talk to me again he said- flattery I love it.

They left on Friday. We went to the British embassy Club on Friday evening where they were having a brain trust quiz. Our team came third out of six-not very good. The winning team had Robin, an Englishman lecturing at the University here so we did not feel too ignorant. We had the disadvantage that one of the rounds was a spelling round and you know how good Tony and I are at that! (We are both dyslexic)

Saturday evening was Tony’s Birthday party and about 50 people came including five itinerant Canadians who were travelling across the world from Australia to America, the American Marines in force, three people from the British embassy, some Dutch and Swedes from the ILO (International Labour Organisation) an English schoolteacher and of course the ICL contingent.

I did my Holland bit and baked cheese straws and made trifles and a selection of savouries and everyone was impressed. We invited the neighbours but only two groups turned up. One was our block chief who speaks English. He bought Tony some beautiful gourds half yellow and half green with white stripes. It hardly looks like it could have grown naturally. Of course we will try and save some seeds for you. It seems this man works in agricultural research and they are developing new varieties of gourd which will be useful commercially. He was very proud because he had met the director of Roehampstead Agricultural Research Centre who had visited Bulgaria from England.

It was quite a swinging party- everyone became merry but no one was really drunk so I was quite pleased.

On Sunday we had no peace because we had the ICL Bar-B-Q. The Nettings plus their 3 children, Anton and family, Terry and Tanya, Jim M and Jan all piled into our cars and went up to the reservoir about 20 miles from Sofia. Anton was not happy as he had an accident on Saturday morning and had smashed the front suspension on his Ford Capri. The AA five star insurance however will pay for it to be towed to Vienna and he hopes to start the journey on Monday.

When we reached the lake we walked some distance to the side of a river which feeds the lake where there was a grassy bank to sit on. We built a fire and cooked steak and jacket potatoes and chicken legs. It was incredibly hot- I had on trousers and sweater and us women soon went off into the bushes to remove our tights, wishing we had put on summer dresses. The men were alright as they stripped down to the waist. Of course the children loved it, catching frogs and lizards and watching the fish in the river; returning with wellingtons full of water. We had a plentiful supply of Beer, wine, cider and orange squash- quite an idyllic day. After we gorged ourselves on food, followed by hot chestnuts a game of football was suggested. Needless to say every sixth kick ended in the river and Tony was chief rescuer dashing down the bank to jump on a stone and just stop himself from toppling in. We all got our trousers wet at one time or another. We had periodic choruses of ‘happy birthday to you’ for Tony’s benefit.

Afterwards we went to the Nettings flat for coffee and cards. Tony and I could not bear to face the mess in our flat left over from the party.

Today Dancha came and cleaned the flat like a whirl wind and it is looking lovely now especially as I had several bunches of flowers –carnations and roses, given to me on Saturday. I think I got more presents than Tony. I have not bought him a birthday gift yet- I shall wait until our next trip home. Even Dancha bought us a present, a tablecloth she had embroidered beautifully herself. She has just invited us to visit her home town outside Sofia for a weekend to get some country air and food.

We are enjoying our life here very much. I think it is mainly because there are more ICL people here now and we have a nice community feel. Our Sunday trip reminded me of when I was a child and we used to go to Ham Hill with all the cousins for a picnic. By the way Dad the spot we chose for our picnic was very popular with Bulgarian fishermen- I should imagine it was a very good trout river.

Bulgaria is also getting better because the customers are more pleasant than they were at the start of our time here. We find we do not have to work such long hours as we did at first- I am even writing this letter at work!

I must have a quiet week next week and catch up on my letters and other chores.

I will try and post Nicky’s birthday card and one for Auntie Dorothy today. Unfortunately I can’t find the cards I bought- they were tidied away for the party but I shall have a good search for them when I get home tonight. I hope they will reach England in time.

Next week we have a two day trip to Russe which should be quite interesting. I had better close now and do some work. I hope Nicky has a lovely birthday and that we will see you all soon.

Love to you all

Gillian and Tony

One of the bad aspects of working for ICL was the fact it was formed from a merger of several smaller British computer companies. At the time there was fierce competition between companies to secure a share of the market leading to mergers and the subsequent rationalisation which really meant job cuts. Machines were large with software and free support from the manufacturer included in the price. We cannot think the company made a profit in Eastern Europe. The Americans were largely banned so the European computer manufacturers had an uncontested market and the British were welcome in some countries like Czechoslovakia because of our support for them in the Second World War. We were less welcome in Bulgaria and seen as a necessary evil to help them move into the computer age. The technology in the East for commercial computers was well behind the West.

Within ICL there was a lot of competition for the management post from personnel from the previous small companies which led to a great deal of politicking within the company. We were somewhat protected from this out in the field and were too lowly in the company for it to matter but saw the effect when we were back in Putney- the head quarters of the Eastern Europe division. Some of the managers were very ruthless and spent time securing their positions rather than looking after their staff. Mr E was an exception to this- a really thoughtful caring man which was why we were so taken with him.

We can still remember the weekend from our past. The Bar B Q was an idyllic day spent in the simple pleasures of eating drinking and being with friends in a beautiful setting with warm sunshine. A week later it was snowing!

The lecturer called Robin taking part in the quizz and was working at the University of Sofia. We met up with several times at the embassy club and film evenings but lost touch with him when he moved to Africa. About sixteen years later when we lived in Sonning we popped in to see one of our neighbours only to find Robin standing in their lounge. It seemed he had worked with our neighbour Geoff at a university in Africa after he left Sofia and was on a fleeting visit to see his old colleague. It reminded us how small the world has become with travel so much more normal especially for academics and business people.