Another Twist in The Tale

I came home one evening (this was whilst I was still selling office equipment) and Valerie said
“sign this” – she had written out my CV and an application for a job in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
This resulted in a wonderful overseas career which the whole family enjoyed, and Paul being
born in Ceylon. However, after flying to Colombo on a VC10 life for Valerie was extremely
hard. Peter and John were great, they were only 5 and 6 but before going to school, Valerie
would cook the doughnuts, which the baker had made earlier and left proving, the boys would
fill them with jam from a plunger machine and roll them in sugar and cinnamon. They would
also finish off the Cornish pasties, egg washing them and pinching the edges together. We
had a rotisserie oven in the front of the shop window with an extractor fan sending out the
succulent smells from the pasties.
Valerie eventually managed to sell the business with great difficulty and eventual problems,
when the purchaser didn’t keep up payments – another one of life’s hard lessons. Luckily we
had a solicitor friend who was a great help and all was eventually resolved, but it took a Court
Case to get the purchaser to pay. So I left in January 1967 and Valerie and the boys left in
May 1967 – little did we know they would be caught up in the 6 th June War in the Suez Canal,
but that is another story!!
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