Continuation from Dear Diary – Page 95

B had another idea to make some money, and I could not fault either his enthusiasm or his tenacity!

The upholstered door “look” was apparently quite popular in Israel, and B’s idea was to start up a business simply based around dressing up interior doors! Of course he needed me to show him how to do it and, from his descriptions together with the pics, it seemed as if a high quality vinyl (leather simulation) would be the fabric of choice, and there was certainly a very wide range of finishes available.

My reservations about it were purely cultural. They did look quite nice in a Mediterranean kind of way, but would they really sell in England? B did not understand the concept of cultural differences in décor and, as our outlay was negligible, we started up Kobi Doors! Our sales plan was to simply “door to door” and present the photographs of the most conservative examples that he had.

It did not take long before we agreed that, as result of minimal interest and no sales whatsoever, we would not pursue it any further.

***

When my sister-in-law and B passed through England on their way to Israel, they did a very good selling job on us about Canada. While they were in Israel, we decided that we would apply to come to Canada.

Not long after Kobi Doors (1975), we had an appointment to go to the Canada Immigration office in Birmingham to review our application. All four of us duly arrived and where shown into a very large office. It was made clear that we would be there for quite some time, so we let Simon (6) and Melanie (3) entertain themselves while we were discussing “business”.

The immigration man was very nice and polite and went out of his way to explain the process that was entailed. It was apparently done on a points scoring system, and we had an advantage because Canada was encouraging young families to relocate there at that time so we gained a few bonus points.

While he was talking to us, and asking questions, I was aware of an odd clinking sound going on behind me. I looked across at my partner and we exchanged raised eyebrows because we both knew that the sound was coming from Simon and Melanie, but we did not want to interrupt this man’s talking by turning around. It could have been seen as quite rude.

Our dialogue continued with this frequent clink and clatter sound going on behind us until I just had to interrupt him with “Excuse me just a moment”, after which I turned around to see what was happening.

The heating system for that office consisted of a large number of metal grills mounted just beneath the windows all along the outside wall. The first thing that I saw was Simon and Melanie playing with a stack of those metal grills. Then I saw the holes beneath the windows where they had come from! We profusely apologized (our future could be in the balance) but he was most unconcerned. He said that as long as they were happily playing, to just leave them alone. He would put all the grills back later!

We were approved!