THE DIARIES OF PAUL K LYONS - 2000
The Y2K bug proved to be a whopping fuss over nothing, but The Day of the Thousand Handshakes, not completed until New Year’s Day, was memorable indeed for Adam and I. And a visit with my family to the much-criticised Millennium Dome was special too.
I got out and about quite a bit this year. In March, I took Adam to Morzine, France, for a week of skiing; and in August we did a bit of camping, walking and cycling in Snowdonia (including, what we called, Poolathon Day). In June, the electricity industry association planned to fly me to Canada for an international conference. This press freebie would have been even better than the World Cup one in 1998. However, air traffic control problems left me stranded at Heathrow. I did, though, go walking in Dorset for a couple of days instead, and, later in the year, I took two holidays: a week on my own in Corfu (Diary 63 - not transcribed), and 10 days with a tour group in Egypt (Diary 65 - not transcribed).
Having lost Theo, and given up trying to replace him, I developed a cycle of work which allowed me to write, edit and publish both the energy and transport newsletters with as timely news as possible. However, I was beginning, for the first time, to have doubts about the future of EC Inform, and to consider the possibility of closing the company down eventually.
Surprisingly, I also had time this year to write, under contract, a history of cooperation in the electricity industry, for which I earned a sizeable one-off fee. Although I fulfilled the brief exactly, and to time, I felt cheated by a small-minded decision to leave my name off the cover - and reacted accordingly.
Otherwise, I was much entertained by the Sydney Olympics, the first Big Brother series on UK television, playing volleyball, and email conversations through internet dating sites. (Diaries 62, 64, 66)
Paul K. Lyons (November 2017)