A true story

My then boyfriend was working on the North Sea oilrigs and had been to see me just after Christmas. As it was a long way to where he had to catch the helicopter back to the rig my mum gave him a large chunk of her homemade Christmas cake and a flask of coffee.

It was essential he made it back down south that night or he would lose a fortnight's work but on the way the radiator went on his car. There were no garages near and he had no radweld with him ........

He took the cake, broke it into pieces and stuffed them into the radiator filler hole, following it with the coffee. This held for the seventy odd miles he still had to travel - with no drainage from the radiator! He made it back to the 'copter just in time to get back to the rig.

However my mum (who was an excellent cook) refused to give him cake to 'take away' ever again.