Back to the man

Yes this is about the guy who my best pal picked up his car from Grantham.
My pal introduced me to him when he bought him in to my place. He seemed a pleasant enough guy and we got on well. In fact so well that he started to come in regular, generally just for a chat. He told me many things. The first thing was that he was hopeless with money. He told me that he had a good job and he recommissioned turbines. He told me that he would earn over £500 a week. I was astounded as this was in the mid 80s. A £100 a week was a great wage. Anyway, he told me that when he had finished his contract he would have some time off and when the money ran out, contact his agent and he would then be given another contract. He told me that he had a good agent. He told me that the worst job he ever had was out in the West Indies. Usually he just gets the turbines working and that is it. This however was different. He didn't know what it was all about. The turbine had not worked for some time and was solid fuel. It was a system that when working was crushing sugar cane and converting it into sugar. Well he went and looked at the job, the owner then told him how the process worked and he would have to train the workmen. He told me that he had never taught anyone in his life before.
He told me he thought about it a long time, studied how it all worked then set out a plan. He was introduced to about 10 workers, he took them to a classroom. Told them exactly how everything worked but it started with the fire. He told me that he used 3 Ts. That was Time Turbulence and Temperature. He explained that first you had to have time to get the fire started, then you had to build up turbulence and when you had this the temperature would rise and steam would be produced. The fuel which was used was spent sugar cane. I think they called it rafatia but don't quote me on that. Anyway he told me that after a week or so, things were working well and he told me he was about to leave as he had finished when the owner contacted him and informed him that there was a problem with the plant. He went to see what was wrong. He tried to think what it could be. Anyway he went to the site only to be greeted by one of the firemen in charge of the boiler. He asked him what was wrong. He then told me that the West Indian told him that the trouble was 4 Ts. He said 4 Ts? Yes came the reply time turbulence temperature and too much ratafia. I started to laugh at this. He rebuked me saying it was not a laughing matter as it meant that he was there for another week. What the fireman had done was just to put far too much spent sugar cane on the fire smothering it so that the fire almost went out. Hence no steam. I will continue with more of him tomorrow.