Neil took us to a French restaurant close to the agency. It was fancy, with more waiters than patrons. Dave and I looked totally out of place. We sat down and were given menus – everything was in French. We pointed at something and hoped for the best.
Half an hour later, three waiters appeared with gleaming silver tureens. With a flourish and an “Alé Oop” they whipped off the lids to reveal – chicken!
I had a moment of elation followed by blind panic. What we didn’t know at the time was that Neil had been in a serious car crash and had a metal plate in his skull. From time to time he suffered from epileptic seizures.
Today was our lucky day. One moment we were chatting and then Neil started to twitch, his eyes rolled in his skull and he teetered on the edge of a seizure. We had no idea what was going on. I looked at Dave and he looked at me – total panic. What flashed through my brain was, “Oh shit, there is no way I can afford to pay for this food, I will have to do the washing up.”
Yeah, I know, not cool.
Luckily, a split second later, Neil came back to us and carried on as though nothing had happened. Our careers in advertising had just begun.