Nothing irritates me more, having moved just the other day onto the sell side, than this practice some of your peers insist on, of excluding me from company meetings. It’s a most unfortunate development. If you all insisted on this I would have missed some absolutely diamond moments, one of which happened this very week when I was introducing a Singapore listed property developer with projects dotted around various Asian emerging markets some exotic, others less so. But when my open-minded, seasoned, professional and massive LO client asked of a particular project “Where in Sri Lanka?” I’m not sure he expected the response he got…. “It’s in the Indian Ocean”. If I hadn’t been there to clear up the confusion I am in no doubt things could have gone awry very quickly. Moral of the story is think twice before exercising your No Broker Policy. It is difficult to exaggerate the value added your friendly broker can deliver on occasion.
The company I was with has also got some projects in Myanmar ( used to be called Burma and lies between India and Thailand and with the Bay of Bengal to the West, Mark ). By a strange coincidence I have just this week re-established contact with a Burmese refugee who, way back when ( in 1989 if I recall correctly ), I helped sponsor so that he could take up a place at Cambridge University. He had impressed a Don, travelling in Burma, with his command of the English language which he had learnt entirely by reading Shakespeare, forsooth. My generosity was not without a degree of self-interest. I thought it would be fantastic if this young man could in time return to his ravaged yet wonderful country and, armed with a Cambridge education, do his bit to turn it around. Perhaps he would end up in politics and even become Prime Minister. Who knew? So it was with considerable excitement that I noted – via the wonders of Facebook – that at long last he has returned to his native country having lived in Oslo, of all places, for the last 20 years or so. During which time he wrote a book ( not exactly a scintillating read if I recall rather meanly )but otherwise of him I had heard not a peep until now and we are established as Facebook friends which is terrific. Early days of course and not that it matters unless you were looking to me to introduce you to a mover and shaker in Myanmar, but I’m not entirely sure yet that my investment is going to completely pay off. At the moment his priority, indeed I suspect his sole ambition, appears to be patching up his grandfathers house by a lake somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and no doubt you will by now expect that well worn refrain, let me know if you want a copy of my 1995 Myanmar trip report…yawn!
So its been that sort of a week. One laugh after another. That is apart from the 24 separate transactions for Digital Content from Amazon totalling £85.38 which mysteriously appeared on my credit card statement. They weren’t funny at all. After establishing beyond reasonable doubt that neither Hen, Jimmy or Bob were to blame I dismissed, admittedly a touch brusquely, favourite child, she who can do no wrong, Lottie’s attempts to talk to me whilst I was on the phone to the bank cancelling the card and demanding a refund. This was unfortunate. I should have been less trusting and more patient. It transpires that she had downloaded copious books onto her Kindle. Sometimes two or three a day and almost every other day for over a month now. Well what has a girl who has just got into Perse Upper go to do with herself other than read incessantly, My Friend Flicka stories and various other rubbish?
Nevertheless my sense of humour was restored by a welcome reminder that other people’s children can be just as dysfunctional as mine. My nephew Charlie is on a BASI skiing course in Morzine. He skis like a dream by the way, but here is a report I read on the BASI blogsite which updates on the progress of our budding ski instructor who has been put up with some kindred spirits for the season in a well-apportioned flat in the middle of town…. I quote virtually verbatim:
“What happens when you put 5 young men ( 3 Scotsmen ( one of them Charlie ), a Yorkshireman and a Southerner ) in an apartment? Well it turns out that for most of the season the guys never worked out how to turn on the hot shower! Early on one of them ( I presume the Southerner) had tried, failed, told the others the hot tap didn’t work. So it transpires, just as we near the end of the season, that they all took it as gospel that there was no hot water in the shower and have endured cold showers or baths filled up from the sink for the last couple of months. That was until group leader Darragh educated the guys on the joys of being an adult and turned the tap anti-clockwise. To the guys amazement hot water magically flowed and the expression on the trainees faces was priceless: a mixture of excitement, confusion and utter embarrassment. Oh to be 18 again. You should see them trying to do their own washing.” Would you want to own that flat??
First weekend of spring looms. Sunshine and 17oC forecast for Gazeley on Sunday. And you know what that means? Of course, the barbeque gets a rub down, but it’s time to roll out the most important video on Youtube. I have to refer to it practically every weekend through the summer…. It’s worth it though. Priceless entertainment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGKLtbiUflk
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