I finished the night without the flattop, but the next morning I told Tony that I will not work another night without it. I was a bally nervous wreck the previous night, and said that if it wasn't back, I would refuse to work, and look for another job! As chefs were very scarce, not a lot of them interested in working at a small hotel, Tony went into a kind of nervous jibbering, and he jumped on the phone, andI heard him speak to Theresa, telling her to bring the flattop back as it immediately! I should have known that she would have taken it, as I knew that she had got Tony so far as to give her one of the toasters! Without that it was also difficult if we had a full house, but I could still manage, although I have squealed like a bally old hag about it, all in vain!
At about ten Theresa's husband stopped in front of the kitchen door, and I sighed a big sigh of relieve when I saw the flattop being taken out! The rest of the Sunday was fine, as I had Gary, and the two lazy girls, whom I now ignored, and with me able to use the flattop again, I managed without a hitch!
I was off the next day, and Liz asked me to go to Stirling with her,. We made a date for ten, but when I got there at the appointed time, she was still in the early stages of her morning ritual. I have described it before, but will do so again! Once she is able to get out of bed, she make herself a coffee, lite a ciggy, then sat slumped at the kitchen table, sucking at the cigarette with nervous and long pulls, drinking her coffee with huge gulps, hands shaking like she has some kind of shaky sickness. Then she would make another coffee, have another cigarette, and then she was ready for a shower. Now all this smoking and shivering takes about two hours, after which she would feel alive enough for a shower. She is almost as bad as my son in law when it came to showers, and hers lasted for about half an hour! Then it was time for another coffee and a cigarette, by which time she would be coughing like somebody with a lung ailment. Then she got dressed, and after yet another coffee and cigarette, she would dry her hair, and put on her jewelry, which she loved!
Anyhow we were seated and ready to roll at twelve thirty, me fuming at the wasting of my precious day off, she all smiles and bonhomie, all at one with the world, as she used to say!
We were just rounding the second circle before entering Stirling, when all of a sudden her car gave a few kind of jolly jumps, and the next moment a thick black smoke poured out somewhere in the back, and then the enjin just died! And there we sat, blocking the traffic, so I got out to see what was wrong, and maybe get somebody to help push the car off the busy road.
A young couple did stop, and they helped me to move the car, and the guy then asked about what happened, and with this information given to him, he opened the bonnet, poked around a bit, then told us that there was no oil in the oiltank! He looked some more, then said that Liz could be very thankful, as the block or something like that, did not crack!
So on his advice, and the car now off the road, he undertook to take us to the nearest garage for oil, but as they had an appointment, he couldn't bring us back! He drove for bally miles before we came to a garage, but we bought the oil, and started back!