Hi Marcie,
Well we did make it to England or rather me and Jennifer Katharine did Bill had to stay over to speak to the lawyers; apparently Borland is kicking up a row saying Bill is stealing all their programmers. I dont know why they make all the fuss its easy to see why anybody would rather work for Bill than that Mr Potato Head Borland guy is it Philip something? Im sure Bill agrees with me on this.
Anyway, England is a real awful place, Marcie honey; there are gales and rainstorms and typhoons in trailer parks its just like that week we spent in Birmingham Alabama launching Windows for Rednecks. All English cows are poisonous (even the Brits admit this can you believe it? A whole island, and all they can do is grow poisonous cows!) so I have had the local ethnic grocer, Al Fayed, air-freight over best Florida milk for JK every morning. As I said to Al, where kids are concerned you cant be too careful.
We are renting a condo in this little backwater called Holland Park, which is quite near London, although not on the main island. You can get CNN on cable, so I guess its not too bad. Yesterday three guys turned up on our doorstep a fat guy, a little smiley guy, and a guy who looks like that guy who played the Devil in, I forget, was it Exorcist III? Anyway, the little smiley guy asked Was Bill in? and I said Maybe although of course he wasnt and moved my finger to the alarm button, because you cannot be too careful in a place like Holland Park. Then the little smiley guy said his name was Blare and hed come about the Y2K software problem and the dome. I said I was real sorry about the software problem, but Bill didnt do personal stuff any more and they would have to call the tech support line just like everybody else, and be sure to have their license number, their zip code, and a brief description of their problem ready when the Microsoft operative answered. Then I shut the door in their faces.
Thinking about it later, I figured Blare & Co were probably real estate agents The Dome is the name of a chain of little restaurants they have around here instead of proper MacDonalds. Perhaps they have a condo near one of these Domes or something. Still, Im so glad theyve gone Marcie I cant tell you how creepy they were!
Theres JK wanting new diapers must go!
Love you,
Mel
Marcie,
I apologise, honey! I was wrong and you were right! Nobody here speaks like that woman in Frasier so I guess she must be Scotch, just like you said. I cant think why she doesnt wear more tartan though if I were Scotch Id absolutely, definitely flaunt it!
Talking of Scotland, we went to that training college that Bill bought at Cambridge. Its quite an impressive place, Marse; we must go there together when you come over to visit its got its own gym and everything. No room for a proper campus like we have at Redmond though the Brits went and built it in the middle of this old town, well duh!, so I guess theyll never get a proper studenty atmosphere going.
Still no sign of Bill he got tied up with Sun over how he was making their Java stuff better by putting Windows code into it, and the lousy ingrates are suing! Can you believe that? I said to Bill, if they dont want their product to work with the Worlds Number One Operating System, he should have nothing to do with their lousy stinking Java trash, and I think he is coming around to my way of thinking.
Oops, theres the doorbell got to dash.
Love
Lindy
Marcie Darling,
Thats it. Im coming home. Bills never going to be able to make it over here. Have you heard? Some two-bit outfit called Netcheapskate or something want Bill to stop putting Explorer into Windows, and some stinking bunch of superannuated (big word huh? Im like that when Im mad) lawyers, the so-called Supreme Court, are backing them up. I say: what if Netscape was allowed to go on selling its nasty little browser just how would that make money for Microsoft? If these lawyers are as smart as they say they are, lets here em answer that one. I said this to Bill and he agreed with me absolutely.
Oh, and do you remember the doorbell in my last email? Youll never guess Marse it was those real estate agents again Mr Blare and the two others. Luckily I had opened the door on the chain.
Blare he was the extra-creepy, smiley little one said: Hello again Mrs Gates! I was hoping to have a word with Bill about the Millennium Dome.
I said: Im sorry about the misunderstanding we had last time Mr Blare, but we are really looking for property in Holland Park, not in Millennium.
The fat one sniggered and said to the real ornery-looking guy, the Devil, Hey Mandy, hadnt you better tell her its in Grennitch? (He had an accent a bit like that woman in Frasier, so perhaps he is Scotch too. Although he wasnt wearing a kilt.)
Mr Blare began to say: Mrs Gates, I think you have misunderstood. I wanted to ask Bill if hed be prepared to contribute , but I popped out the can of mace that I keep by the door (you cant be too careful) and pointed it at him, and said: Ok guys the party is over. Scram. And to my relief they did with the Devil running the fastest.
Marse, I guess that it wont come as a surprise that after this we have decided not to buy a place in England its not the sort of atmosphere I want for JK. If they want people to live here, the English should stop growing those poison cows, for starters.
Lots of love
Melinda