the complaint could be resolved should our fabric be found at fault. I would no longer have a sales territory. In addition, he wanted me to visit all our suppliers and thoroughly assess their quality control methods. We bought fabrics from all over the world. We had suppliers in the States, South Africa, India, and Australia and of course most of the countries in Europe. He was giving me the opportunity to become a world traveller at the company’s expense. “You Dal, have more technical knowledge than anyone else in this company. I am pleased that you don’t have commercial skills as well, else you would probably be sitting in my chair.”
I grinned at him. “I could learn them.”
Gerry returned the grin. “I would sack you before you became that competent.” He went on. “I want you to be completely honest with the customer. If it’s a fault, say so, and immediately put in place measures to correct the fault. If you say we have to replace the fabric and pay for re-making, then we will do so. If you say the complaint is spurious then we will write, enclosing a copy of your report. I believe that by handling things this way we will earn a lot of respect in the trade, and our high street customers will push our products, knowing that we will back them up.”
He was right. As the news got around the trade our business share did increase as retailers were interested in doing business with a supplier who stood by their responsibilities. We didn't have that many complaints, but the few that were placed I investigated thoroughly. When the customer received a visit from a representative of the supplying company, armed with a camera, Thread Count Glass (a small optical instrument allowing you to examine and count threads in the weave) notebooks and tape measure, they were happy that someone was taking them seriously. Amusingly, this charade worked both ways as a rejection of the complaint was accepted more easily because it had been investigated thoroughly. I also become quite conversant with making up charges and was able to spot the retailer who tried slipping exorbitant charges past us in order to alleviate his factor of the costs.
Since I would be office based now, I gave notice to my landlord and moved to be close to the Head Office which was on the South Coast. I was grateful for the increase in salary as renting in this location was much more expensive.
I had travelled quite a lot for three years in this new job, I was baked in the heat of Australia, India and South Africa, and found my way around Europe. My travels gave me the opportunity of seducing and being seduced by girls of different shades and traditions, a sort of United Nations orgy, and yes, I did join one of those; in South Africa of all places. I also found that Chinese girls are not built differently; as some would have you believe, had quite healthy appetites and giggled a lot during the encounters. It was amazing that two people who had little of each other's language could nonetheless indicate by gestures and actions the desire to go to bed together. The cries of orgasm sound the same whatever the language. I loved Australia and the States. Their cultures were such a shock after the United Kingdom; they were so open and happy. Then there were their girls, so gorgeous and as willing as I to indulge in bedroom games. I was enjoying my life, yet despite all this as the years went by, travelling and tasting the sweet flavours of the sensual life, I started to yearn for the one woman, that special woman with whom I could connect on all levels and walk with side by side for the rest of my life.
In all this time I made certain that I would be back in the UK in order to see my