Wednesday 15th December 1937

Went to the Office today, making a few calls en route. Collected a keg of distemper (being returned for re mixing) and a cheque. Thus loaded, the Zephyr rumbled westwards along frosty roads between white fields. Wintry landscape. Cautiously found my way through Manor Park, Hampstead, Kilburn to the West End. Left the keg of distemper at Harrow Road (first time I’d been there since my lorry boy days).

Office 4 o’clock. Mr Packman was there; (previously, Packy of Sales Promotions Ltd). A hasty talk to the cashier, Mr Pullen. A discussion with the sales manager, Mr Reddall. Then Packy and I left and went to Fleet Street. Not a bit changed since becoming a Paripan representative – Packy. His future prospects, secretly confided to me, are bright too. (“Don’t tell anyone else, old man”) By Jove! How jealous the other reps would be if they knew! He then told me about the “outfit” which I met at Birmingham and at Soho Square.

Toothless Tom Hammond had gone back to his old job in a West End china shop and was no longer toothless. HF Insoll was still at Soho Square, “staving off the creditors”. Gledhill was dead – fell down an area; I knew that. Marky and Jimmie Rigg had started a sales promotion agency but recently Rigg assumed control and sacked Marky. The irony of it! A few months previously Marky could have sacked Jimmie! We called at Jimmie Riggs office; he seemed fairly prosperous. Looked just the same as when he gave me first lessons in salesmanship – fat little face glistening. “Marky wired me, “Guildford isn’t finished yet”. By this I could only assume that the beer in Guildford wasn’t finished”.

Marky recently tried to get a job as a Post Office Sorter (temporary) and failed. I eventually left Packy and Jimmie Rigg in a Fleet Street pub. Retrieved the Zephyr and drove home to Ealing.