I'll never forget the look on his face
As a young garage apprentice I was dropped into town to collect a customers Brand new 7 series BMW with all the bells and whistles. As it was late in the evening I was to bring it home and in to the garage first thing in the morning.
That evening our scout troop were meeting with a foreign visitor who was helping us plan our foreign summer camp. Foreign visitor was obviously some important bod and a friend of his who was a pillar of the National business community showed up and invited us to a dinner in the Posh hotel where foreign visitor (FV) was staying. When I arrived in my monster car at the hotel, the car park was jammed full so I wound down the window and asked the porter if he had "a little spot where I could squeeze this thing in" and he proceeded to move some cones from right out side the entrance porch and in a rare moment of generosity i gave him £5.
When about twelve of us sat down to dinner i ended up across from pillar of the business community(PBC). Being full of his own importance he spouted on about how great a bloke he was and all the great things he had done. He frequently shouted to FV at the far end of the table with "hey FV i'm just telling the lads here about the time we were in Geneva" and similar antics. PBC then spent the entire desert course regaling us with the story of the recent delivery of his brand new 3 series BMW. I pretended to be impressed and encouraged him to tell us more. His best line being "the ABS has saved my life already" explaining how it was so powerful you didn't notice when you were going fast and how a tractor had come out of a gate and he had to brake and steer at the same time.
With the meal ( and the party political broadcast on behalf of PBC) over people were going there separate ways. It had started to lash rain and as people were going to have to make a run for it to avoid getting soaked, goodbyes were being said in the shelter of the Hotel porch when the porter recognised me from earlier and offered to escort me to my car with his umbrella when I was ready.
I accepted his offer and as he removed the cones to allow me reverse back across the entrance I wound down my window and gestured farewell to my comrades. I will never forget the look of realisation on PBC's face for as long as I live.
(midlifecrisis, Thu 10 Feb 2011, 11:03, Reply)