Some more Sabena
We soon found that dining at the canteen was no hardship. A great steak and chips was fourteen francs (Our daily allowance was 40B.Frs and there were about 140 B.Frs. to the £ at that time.) We quickly learned to dip the magnificent Belgian chips in mayonnaise instead of ketchup... As long as you kept a small piece of meat on your plate to show that you had bought a main course you could go back for as many chips as you liked . This practice, "Frites a volonte", existed in most of the many good cheap restaurants to be found in the Brussel's department stores such as Innovation, Galeries Anspach and Au Bon Marche. Half a dozen Oysters with a glass of wine, bread and butter would cost fifteen francs at any of those places. We were staying at the very comfortable Palace Hotel but could not afford to repeat our first meal experience there so were lucky to find a Cafe, just opposite, run by an Englishman, Ken Hancock,who had stayed on after the war and married a Belgian,Adele, who was now his partner in running what became our home from home. For 30 B.Frs. each evening, most of us would sit down to a giant meal of soup, steak, mushrooms and chips with all the rolls and best farm butter that we could eat. Later, when Dora and the family came to join me the, biggest treat for the children would be to go to Hancocks for a meal where they would be treated like Royalty and we would safely leave them there whilst we went shopping. They would play happily on the football machine and it was always the first choice for birthday treats for many years. When our fourth child, Susan, but always known as Feeka was born in 1956 we would leave her, quite contentedly in her cot on one of the benches under the care of Adele and Ken. Sadly, the cafe was pulled down to make way for a giant car park next to the "Bon Marche". Ken became the Chef at the very popular English tea rooms in the English shop W.H.Smiths. Once ,Dora and I were having tea there and I went to the very old fashioned toilet upstairs. It was an "Unisex" one with a small half size urinal on the wall and a closet to which I hied myself. When I came out, to my amazement there was a woman perched precariously on the urinal with her knickers around her ankles. I could only mutter "Bon Jour" and hurry out.
We had been joined by other British Pilots and were about seventeen on the course together with some Belgian trainees , mostly ex-Belgian Air Force. One of the British pilots had arrived at Melsbroek dressed in a pinstripe morning suit, bowler hat and tightly rolled umbrella. A porter said to him in English "Are these your bags Sir ? " and our pilot pointed his umbrella at him and said in pure Oxford tones "How did you know I was English ?"
More soon. My Finger is tired. Regle