Bowater Frank

Whilst in the loo at work today (as a mere mortal I have to visit the smallest room ;-) I noticed that the toilet roll holders are provided by Bowater and it made me remember a date I had many moons ago…

I was in my late teens and I had been single for a little while, working as I did in a military barracks and not wanting to be the camp bike, I had made a rule not to sleep with any army personnel. So I responded to a Personal Ad in the local paper in the newspaper instead. So much better, don’t you think? I did, but then my 19 year old brain told me it was better at the time. Now, with the benefit of hindsight I would have taken my chances with the fit army officers, but hey, we all know hindsight is a bitch!

After many letters and phone calls (before the days of email) with ‘Frank’, we decided to meet and take our dogs for a walk. He lived about a 20 minute drive from me, owned his own home, was 29 and was an accountant for Bowater Scott. So, on the day in question he arrived at the appointed time for the little jaunt with our dogs. I had Ben, the German shepherd, he had Jock the dachshund.

I invited him in and he sat in the kitchen with Jock on his lap talking to me and my Mum (yes…my Mum grilled him too), before we set of on the walk. Kingley Vale was our destination, it’s a big hill (Ordnance Survey Grid Ref: SU821103) with a Viking burial mounds on the top, spectacular views and is quite a good workout.

Now you have to do some work…image, we are half way up the hill, the dogs are having fun, we are kinda getting on when he slips on some mud and lands on his arse!

What do you do? You don’t do what I did, which was bust out a laugh before catching myself then rushing to console him. The rest of the walk was spent in relative silence and I never heard from him again.

But for some reason every time I see a Bowater loo roll dispenser I think of him and his little dog and wonder if it was the laugh or the lack of things in common that drove him away. I’ll never know, but I do know that he will be with me whenever I go to the loo while working here!


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