Another Twist in The Tale

Just to remind you these guest houses were established by the colonial system years ago for
when the higher archery of the British Empire used to travel up country from one step over
guest house to another.
I was shocked, I was absolutely shocked why?...
I said to the chairman “there are over 100 to visit and I haven't got time to operate the hotel
school and write reports as you request”. I said I was honoured to be asked this by you and
laughingly said my contract with you is only for 2 years, if you would like me to do this all over
Ceylon you would have to ask me to stay for another 2 years the way you are going on!
He immediately said “Mr Richeeees noo noo”, with a smile on his face he said “I don't want
you to visit them all, just say 10 or 20 so you don't come back to Colombo after a long break
and everything is out of control at the hotel school”, so my reply was “I can just possibly do 6
inspections and then I will have to return to base, otherwise all my control will be taken over
by the Canadian system as you know”. He said “I know what you mean Mr Richeeees, I agree
with you”.
So with my family and a chauffeur driven car, and remember there had not been any imports
into Ceylon of cars, bicycles, refrigerators, kitchen equipment, etc, etc, as the country was
bankrupt. The only exception was they were allowed to bring into their country London red
double decker buses, which were about to be scrapped in the UK.
I remember my third day after I arrived I suggested to Carl Steverson that I would like to drive
around Colombo to get acquainted with the city, what was the best way to do it, as my
beloved Vauxhall 6 seater estate car was somewhere between ?? And Colombo harbour!
Carl said “oh that's easy, just go outside the hotel put your hand out and stop a taxi, most of
them are Morris Minors, make sure” he said laughingly “that you get a good one as there had
not been any imports of taxis for years or any other car also...“
He said this jokingly with a smile and a wicked look in his eye.
After the first 8 minutes of my taxi ride I soon realized, looking at the state of the upholstery
inside and the paint work outside, something was not quite right, we were speeding along a
busy but fairly straight road when suddenly this small roundabout appeared, by the way I was
sitting next to the driver.
I will never forget as we sped round this roundabout my side door flew open and flew off its
hinges and if I hadn't grabbed something else in the car I don't think I would be writing this
story, I was shocked! I can now remember seeing Carl's face grinning as I mentioned a few
paragraphs before. The driver came to a screaming halt full of apologies, sorry master, sorry
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