. The Captain came and apologised saying that the engines had a reverse flow, which under damp high monsoon conditions built up ice which then fell off  extinguishing the flame temporarily and when re-ignited caused a backfire explosion. I thought to myself that it seemed strange that with all the high powered and highly paid people in the aviation industry and with all the testing facilities, that no one had thought about this before they had commissioned the engines into commercial operation. But soon we were out of it and  we were landing at Heathrow into a proper terminal this time, instead of  the two nissen huts 4 years previously.
It was marvellous to meet up with Jill again and the twins and go down to Buxted to see Mother in her lovely cool house and pretty garden. Over the next few weeks Janet had seen a specialist who had ascertained that she had vision in her “lazy-eye”. She was given corrective glasses and also to start with had to wear a patch on her good  eye for half the day. She looked poor thing, like a little owl in her glasses and with her  hair in two bows. The weather that summer in 1959 got hotter and hotter. So hot in fact that it was far warmer at Buxted , Sussex than at Hugoland in Ceylon. We had engaged a young nanny to help with the children, who had run away from home and only had a tweed skirt to wear in the oppresive heat until Mother fitted her out with a cotton skirt. But we took Mother’s little Standard Car to France and had a wonderful time in the French Alps where Jill had happy memories  of her “Student-Exchange” days. We climbed up on to the Mont Blanc Glaciers and picnicked by roaring  freezing mountain streams, and stayed in skiing accomodation for the princely sum of  half a crown a night “(2s 6d) 12p today. From there we went down to Montpelier, to Carcassonne to see where the Charnaud’s had originated from and back home. A wonderful break with good food and wine all the more appreciated  after the contrast of Ceylon.
On arrival back at Buxted we were faced with Hugh’s new wife Jean who had arrived from Lusaka with a baby David. She was a North Country teacher by profession, a person self taught and highly disciplined,  but with  a hardness and coldness that was calculating and  non appealing to us. It turned out that Hugh had just returned from a flight to Europe back to his rooms with his friend, where there was a party in full swing. He said he couldn’t be bothered and was tired and had gone to his bedroom and flaked out, only to awaken some hours  later and had found this lady next to him, following which she was  in the family way. She had then tried to organise Hugh who was a real bush wallah, a champion crocodile hunter, in her disciplined manner, an aspiration that was impossible.  They had immediately fallen out, and over the next year Hugh had to come and sort out a divorce. She stayed about a fortnight at Buxted, Mother and us all being as polite as possible, but she was just not our colonial, self confident, easy going   adaptable   type.
The rest of our time passed quickly and easily. We flew to  Paris in a gale, and nearly hit another airliner which was  only a few hundred yards away. I would spend a lot of time whilst at Buxted with an old Ceylon Planter, Alwyn Richardson who lived nearby at Blackboys about 2 miles away. Alwyn had only one eye, and was an ex-Chindit from the Burma campaign and he always had a wonderful fund of stories. The first he always would recall was trying to find a nice house to live in when he came back and retired. He looked everywhere and could not find quite what he wanted and then he remembered this Oasthouse that he had visited  many years before. So at his wits end he drove to make a cold call and inquire whether there was any likelihood of the owner selling it. When he arrived the owner was in earnest discussion with two women and so he waited for them to leave and he put his question to him.
“ Well yes I do as it happens want to sell but I have a problem”
“What is it and can I possibly be of any assistance” Alwyn replied.
“It is like this. About two years ago my dear wife died, and when I sit at night alone in the sitting room she appears in front of me. You see she so loved this place and we were both so happy here, and all I want is the new occupant to be nice and kind to her and make her feel welcome. Those other women they wanted it, but somehow they seemed cold and hard.”
“Does you wife like a drink in the evening like us, because we always have one, Peggy loves her gin, and I a whisky and soda?”
“Yes she does, she too loves a gin and tonic” he replied.
“Well let me re assure you with a solemn promise, that we always have a sideboard of drink and it will give me the greatest of pleasure to offer her a glass of whatever she fancies”.
With that the deal was done and Alwyn bought 50 acres of lovely farmland, a beautiful Oasthouse with a stream and a small wood, an enormous lake with a badger sett on the side for £9,500 in 1957.
He never ever saw the ghost!
I bought all sorts of fruit trees to try out at Luckyland, peaches, apricots , pears etc. Jill bought 5 dozen fertile white leghorn eggs, and after a heavy snowfall we took off from Heathrow in early January1960, this time in a Comet 2 Jet airliner, the first commercial jet in operation,  full of excitement to be returning to my childhood home  at Luckyland,  but now  this time in charge of the property which together with Hugoland   gave me one of the very best jobs in the island at the age of only 28 years.      We arrived in the early evening at the Airport, and as we drove the 20 miles to Colombo, there was in the air that lovely varied aroma of smells of curries cooking, smoke from coconut husks and the all pervading scents of Queen on the Night. We were home from snowy but scentless Winter in England. 

4/4 Next Chapter.