“ Mike for heavens sake steer well clear of her. She has underneath a certain distant coldness that I cannot describe in words, but which I feel in my bones. She is in a way like your Mother, reserved, aloof and lacking the full warmth that a man really needs. When I was young I could not make up my mind between your Mother and her sister Helen. Madeline had the looks and the intellect, however what she lacked was the deep sympathy and warmth of understanding and sociability that Helen her sister had in abundance. Take my solemn advice Mike beware of her and just think what you could be letting yourself in for. In Jill on the other hand you have someone vivacious and a charmer and a character so similar to Aunt Helen’s that it is almost uncanny. She may not be so beautiful, but she has that natural prettiness and attractiveness which ultimately will last you for ever. Above all she has the most charming generous nature and naturally gets on with everyone, and yet has a quiet determination in her own mind when she has set her heart on anything. To me she is an absolute gem.”
Sound advice which I never regret taking. To press his point home, he could see that I was upset of not be able to go to France with the former, so he reached out into his writing desk and gave me ten large white £5 notes. It was the first time that I had ever held notes such as this and in such quantity as well a sum worth well over £2,000 today. “Take this with my compliments and take your bike and go and have a well deserved holiday in Cornwall. We have some good friends at Fowey who will look after you.......just go and relax and enjoy yourself ,you have passed your exams well and deserve a good break”. I did as he said and had the most marvellous month’s sailing at Fowey having joined a small sailing club “The Gallants” which had been started up by a Maltese bachelor who worked for Esso. I cannot remember his name but he was one of those kind magical personalities that had an affinity for young people. The races, the picnics and the dances with a great crowd of mostly people in their teens and early twenties leave with me the happiest of memories. Some twenty years later I was back, this time enrolling my own teenage children to do the same as I had done before. It was a good thing to see the club still flourishing in its simple unassuming style.
It was whilst Father was over at Orchard House, that he broached the subject of my career. Particularly both Mother and Father wanted me to go back into teaplanting to look after our family’s interests in Ceylon to keep an eye on Hugoland and also to make a career in the tea business, where Father was greatly respected throughout Ceylon as it’s finest agriculturalist. With his contacts and my Agricultural degree my future should be good. I did have strong reservations about the stability of the Island in the “post - independance” future, but Father countered that saying “ They can never get rid of the goose that lays the golden egg. We are the technicians that produce the wealth of the Island, and were they to squeeze us out, the place would collapse and they know it”.
I too had a yearning to work in the tropical paradise that I had grown up in. I loved the wide open spaces, the simple pioneering life, miles from anywhere, the gentle respectful and courteous nature of both the Tamils and the Sinhalese from the humblest to the highest, all appealed to me. So without too much hesitation, I accepted his offer. It would be in two years time after I had finished my course, but at least I knew where I was going, and the path seemed appealing as well as exciting.
Autumn came and two more years at Reading University, some of the happiest moments in my life. Carefree, good company, a nice girl ,with whom our relationship became increasingly close, loving and above all a complimentary meeting of minds. Things got a bit tricky with Sybil or “Ma” as we called her. She could see our relationship getting closer, and she admired my intellect as she respected a sharp brain which ran as fast as hers. She admired self confidence , although one day she was amazed at my answer to her question as to whom in my opinion were the brightest and most intelligent of our years intake?
“ Without a doubt myself and Tony Parkin” I replied.
“You seem over sure of yourself. Surely there must be others who are equally studious?”
“ I was not thinking of studiousness, I was thinking more of broad based education and of what one has seen of life, and ones experiences. Tony and I in our quite different ways had a wealth of experience and education such as none of the others had. They merely buried their noses in books, whereas we had lived and were keen to go on living”.
