• My Dad’s last failed business went bankrupt and he owed some fishermen some money. He restarted and a few years later asked me to go and visit a fishing port with him. I didn’t accompany him to the meeting and he was vague about what he was doing. Years later I learned that what he had been doing was paying back every single fisherman that he had owed money to, and this trip had been him paying a couple of them back despite having no legal need to do so, even though it took him a few years. He did however understand that it was “right” and so he did it.
• Our primary business at this time was Scallops. Buying Scallops from fishermen is unusual because you pay them based off of the yield of usable product you obtain. This means that the fishermen don’t know how much they are going to get until you tell them (after processing). My brother dealt with the fishermen, and I always thought he was too soft with them. He got accused of “ripping them off” and just accepted it. I thought this was a poor choice for him personally and us commercially but he wouldn’t listen. One year he went on holiday and said to me that one fisherman was especially difficult, but I was to be firm with him. I thought that a bit rich, but didn’t mind because I felt that was what was required. Sure enough  my brother went on holiday, I had to call the fisherman in question and tell him what his last batch had made and sure enough he accused me of ripping him off. Now, I had triple checked before calling him and knew that the figures were correct. I told the fisherman this but he ignored me and called me a few names and said that we were all the flipping same. I offered him the chance to come and see his product processed (again) to prove that everything was above board, he would not do this but continued to claim he was being ripped off.  I was sick of it. He was a physically imposing man but a bully and I was young (22 or so), but I was angry and offended (and probably over confident) so I completely unprofessionally offered him the opportunity to resolve matters physically, I said he could come to me or I was happy to travel but either way he wouldn’t carry on making these accusations. I think it is fair to say that he was surprised, he blustered a bit and hung up. I then had a nerve week or so wondering if he would turn up, but fortunately for all concerned he choose not to take me up on it, which was a relief! Suffice to say I told my brother when he came back and he was furious with me for risking the supply, however, as I told him, he had said to be firm!
• When buying a fishing boat company and after particularly torturous negotiations we at last seemed ready to close the deal and I agreed with my lawyer that we should aim for the last Friday of the month. I really wanted the boat before the new season started so that there couldn’t be any complications with the quota being used up by the previous owner and price adjustments consequences. A couple of days later he called me and said it couldn’t be Friday. I was absolutely non-plussed by this, there was no good reason why it couldn’t be the Friday, and in frustration I asked him why on earth we couldn’t do it on the given Friday, everybody knew we were under significant time pressure. The answer was – that it was bad luck to sell it on a Friday! The fisherman absolutely would not sell on that day, so I had to wait for the following Monday. I have wondered how many other contracts have been delayed for that reason – I imagine not many.

• Was part of an industry delegation that supported the UK minister and senior civil servants in the annual EU fishery negotiations which set quota levels for the whole of the EU and therefore the UK for the coming year (Basically the size of the cake was known, it was a question of which country was getting what. This included having to be available 24/7 in case they wanted to talk something through
• Had a number of meetings (as part of a group) with the UK Minister about various issues
• Was interviewed on national tv for my views on Brexit and how it would impact the seafood industry in particular

• Dinner with guests was challenging as at the drop of a hat a toast would be made which then necessitated a corresponding slug of Russian Vodka, in one or it was viewed as disrespectful/rude. The more they drank, the more toasts were made – as I say, challenging!
• Whilst there was a hint of political danger generally, Tony and I were able to go to Red Square NYE and have a great time mingling and chatting with various people and make our way back to the apartment with no issues
• You would sometimes see queues of people outside shops (for the average Muscovite) these were – I think – called Hope queues. Basically, if people saw a queue forming, they would assume there was something good in there and queue, without knowing what it may be – hence the “hope”
• As Westerners, we shopped in the Hard Currency stores (at an appallingly adverse exchange rate of course) and I remember thinking a lot of that was poor quality with very little variety, so I could only imagine what the normal shops were like. The vast bulk of my aunt and Uncle’s food was flown in from Finland

• My brothers and I were at loggerheads regarding the direction that the business should go in and somebody had to go or put it at risk, my father had just passed and I couldn’t countenance his creation foundering on our intransigence. I decided to leave which made Australia a real possibility
• Janelle’s Mum sadly has Alzheimer’s
• We felt that Lennox would get better schooling in Australia.

I’ve joined Rotary, I am on the Board of a local charity (Connecting2Australia which Rotary have been kind enough to support). Chris Angera introduced me to the Chairman of the board and I was invited to join from there. So, what is C2A? To get something pithy I went on their website and: “C2A’s services are designed to provide individualised care and inclusive opportunities for people with disability”. I love that and am looking forward to being able to contribute positively.