‘A Small and Manageable Operation’, or Making Bricks without Straw

Abstract

As it happened I did not see Luanda again until 18 March. In the meantime my feet hardly touched the ground. When I arrived back in Vienna only 12 days remained before I had to hand over my office as Director-General on 1 March. Regular activities continued unabated, to which was added a round of official farewell calls and parties, including luncheons given by the President and the Foreign Minister of Austria. Nights and weekends were spent in a morass of packing cases and paper strewn all over the apartment and the office. Little yellow labels were stuck on furniture and other things proclaiming that their destination was Luanda (by far the smallest consignment), the United Kingdom, New York or Bolivia, where I ultimately hoped to retire, only to be modified as my housekeeper, Sissy, and I changed our minds, or they fell off of their own volition. Small wonder that, three years later, I am still trying to reunite different parts of the same piece of furniture, now scattered in different parts of the world. Such are the joys and hazards of international life!