Well, it's nearly here! In fact we had another night of snow. We are wondering if City Airport will be open for our flight at two o'clock.
It takes me about two hours to pack and prepare for leaving the flat and as I turn out the refrigerator I am always reminded of an old friend of ours, Doug Hayward.
Doug died a couple of years ago and is still sadly missed by his myriad of friends who often laughed with him and occasionally about him. Doug bless him was a little careful with his pennies a failing I was to run into both when I worked for him and as a friend observing him!
If I used the telephone for a personal call in the shop he would tell me to put my money in the box. If I used one of the office stamps for a personal card he would put out his hand for payment. He did it without a hint of a smile and after the first occasion when I refused and he sulked for the rest of the afternoon, I always preempted his outstretched hand and paid up without a word. I did point out that I had worked all afternoon and that he hadn't paid me a penny. He knew I loved him and it was honour to help and to be at the centre of the fascinating crowd who congregated at his shop.
Doug was The Tailor to the Stars and held court in his shop in Mount Street. If I was ever bored or wanted to just get out of the flat I would go and help him with his customers, most of whom I knew anyway. Anyone who was anyone and was in London would drop in on Doug to have a suit measured or just to hear the latest jokes from the football loving tailor. Doug was very funny and if one was lucky enough to drop in when Michael Caine, Roger Moore, or any one of the film stars who loved him, the laughter lifted the roof, especially if they had moved over to Scotts for a little light refreshment half way through.
Ralph Lauren had his suits made by Doug, in fact asked Doug to make a pattern for a mans suit that he could sell under his own name, which Doug duly did and thousands were sold around the world. Doug made all the suits for the Bond films and a good percentage of all formal clothes worn by every actor making movies in England.
One day I dropped in to say hello and there was George Hamilton who had obviously had a big win at the tables the night before. His pockets were jammed with large denominator notes and cheques worth up to a million! Doug closed the shop, we walked to BMW in Park Lane and George bought TWO top of the range motor cars cash down and after four celebratory gin martinis in The Dorchester, I was so drunk and so tired through helpless laughter that I bailed out and took a taxi home. The two of them were the funniest men alive. And George, the brownest!
George topping up his tan!!!
Doug hailed from the East End and had an endless store of very funny jokes and because he cheered everyone up if they were in town for a movie, the first stop had to be in Mount Street. From politicians, movie stars and even famous heads of Footsie Companies they hung around Doug just for the pure joy he brought to their lives.
Doug lived above his tailoring business during the week and at weekends he drove to his little cottage at Henley on Thames. I have mentioned that he was careful with his pennies so every weekend a bootful of uneaten vitals went with him. I was friendly with his girlfriend Fanny, and one day she told me that he even takes a half eaten sandwich with him, and his potatoes and cheese have done more miles than the Cornish Express!
This morning as I pack up my fridge I realise that I have caught the same mean disease as I was packing up all the uneaten food and taking it back to Italy.
AC knows what I am doing and every time he passes the kitchen door he says sarcastically that I have to pay any overweight myself!!
THIS WILL FEED US FOR A WEEK AND I CAN'T BUY CHEDDAR CHEESE IN TUSCANY!!!
The moral of this story is a sad one.
Doug grew up in the East End during the post war years and through pure talent and hard work made himself into a star tailor but he never forgot how it felt to be poor.
He saved every penny and when some of his chums bet him he couldn't lose the weight that threatened to give him a heart attack, he fixed his mind on the huge cheque he was going to win and promptly went on a diet.
He was so successful that he became unrecognisable and later died because of complications due to lack of food!!!
RIP DOUG.
I need to go on a diet but I don't have the strength of character to go that far.
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