Although Price Waterhouse had offered me a position with them in London I decided in the circumstances to just look for temporary work. As we were in Thames Ditton in Surrey I decided to try BOAC at Heathrow, and was offered a temporary position with them.
I worked for a Captain Aries in Flight Operations. He was an ex-Comet pilot and great fun.
Amazingly at that time I was the only Chartered Accountant working for BOAC.
I’m sure BA, as they are now, will have a hundred bean counters working for them. The systems were dreadful, and I suppose this is when my interest in systems rather than accountancy really began.
I worked on different management reporting systems including the design of a system to charge out their new Flight Simulator to pilots from other airlines. This was the first Flight Simulator at Heathrow. Also I did a lot of work on controlling and reporting flight costs – servicing, landing fees, fuel etc and also flight staff costs. This is when I found out how many hotels around the world had banned BOAC staff!!
I kept my correspondence with BOAC
I helped my Mum through my dad’s death and encouraged her to buy a Mini. She learnt to drive, at 50, and found a job at the nearby Tax Office.
After 7 months I decided I’d like to go back to Spain with PW. My Mum, bless her, encouraged me to go, and it is only comparatively recently that I look back and realise as an only child I didn’t spend nearly enough time with her. Even when I ended back in the UK I went to live in ‘the North’.
This was the letter I received from Price Waterhouse in November 1966
Which told me there was no vacancy in Spain but offered me positions in Paris or Milan, with the possibility of a move back to Spain when the opportunity arose.
But I really wanted to go back to Barcelona as I had a car and belongings still there and loved the city.
So I looked for another employer in that fabulous city, and found one. Deloitte’s.