I need to "pause" in this frantic (tit-M-anic) period of supporting Liverpool FC ..and I have been talking with local Ana (online) & Veli (in "delboys", Pg) these last few days..
whilst many sceptics & narrow minded "fans" have doubted my qualifications to co-ordinate
the "RED October" strategy, I was inclined to recall the past, and its true that I DO NOT have any "paper qualifications" (nor did my Mentor "Shanks"...)

...........at 16 years old, I cut short the extended "comprehensive" schooling in favour of "work exerience" where as an office boy I could learn all the basics...post dept, messenger work, city round (taking wine samples etc to the customers, going to the docks paying dutues @ customs etc etc ) ...by my own choice I studied "Strategy" after hours (my day was already 12 hrs + as it took often 90-120 minutes each way to "commute" ) .....

I worked up through all the boring jobs quickly, and that including writing out orders by hand (no computers or word processors at that time) until at 18. I became assistant to the Transport manager.A freak situation when the "Boss" caught me reading a book instead of working and discovered that I could manage the "logisitics" more efficiently & in half the time (and at a fraction of the wages) of the manager resulting in a "shock" appointment at the tender age of 19, I was "hungry" for responsiibility and within months I had a 4 bedroom house, a wife and an adopted daughter..

Well, after my (now deceased) son being born the next year, my first wife decided to run away with both kids for a YOUNGER man..claiming I was a "workaholic" , which had grounds, as by 21 I had been appointed as a middle manager in an International import/export shipping agents within the more modern methods of bulk & container movements of wines & spirits..and I formed a "Union" (staff association) and was made commercial manager - forming tariffs, organising shipment schedules travelling & negociating with the various agencies around Europe!

I learnt a lot from the 2 bosses of that company and having channelled the energy from losing my kids (although I paid for them via a court order) into my career I responded arrogantly when one of them took away certain "perks" after I wrote off a brand new company car on my first summer holiday with my new girlfriend...The suppliers I met were more sympathetic and their boss lent me his car to continue our holiday, so I walked out. I had a great time at that company, and especially with a young group of middle managers like myself, at a time when "the REDS" (Lfc) also were booming! (in the 70's, the finals; 71, 74, 77 & 78 stand out in my memory)

I destroyed a neighbours car on the way to another job interview, I got the job, but left it after a row with the general manager (who insisted I call him "mr" <smile> )..then the largest logistics company in europe, half owned by the french state, appointed me, to develop new services, especially from the french wine regions. My success led to me being "head hunted" by the competitor company I was taking most of the busines from. (a London company owned by 3 brash cockney millionaires) They bought me at double the salary & a new powerful "Ghia" company car, but I was soon bored, as they only wanted to "stop" me taking profits from them.

I therefore re-directed my talents into organising the office...taking out the General Manager (to lunch) who was only a few years older than myself, educating HIM in "delegation" and soon we were both wined & dined at long lunch & dinner meetings whilst the office ran "like a machine"....then again, I was head-hunted, this time a french competitor of my former employers wanted my services to lead a new company , form an agency and develop services for them in UK..

but "Mike" wanted me to stay, or rather, he proposed that WE start our own company , serving the global wine & spirit trade. We talked to 3 customers, in our own time, "off the record" but one betrayed our trust and we were both sacked! without notice, (despite having decided NOT to "compete") and although I had a fantastic offer "on the table" ( a mangers salary, sports car, 5 year contract with bonuses & a house in the country, which my second wife Jacqueline could choose!) ...I felt anger at our treatment by the "3 cockneys" ..especially as Mike was their first ever employee, since 13 years and had a new baby son , wife & mortgage to support!

Therefore, I phoned around , and found a cheap dingy office in a container depot, where we shared a Telex machine (the only technology we used) one desk and one phone. BUT we were motivated - I was DETERMINED on revenge, to show all those previous employers that I could take the best of their methods add my own ideas and "make it" ...I formed a list of the biggest customers (including the likes of Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Segram etc) and, unlike our competitors, who waited for orders, I went after them, and got them, within our first years trading we had a turnover in excess of 1 million GBP! (and were on our way to handling 6 million bottles of wine via our services...with only 2 people in the office!)

Despite an even better year following, adding profits from other services; insurance and financing ouselves which cleared a full GBP million in profits (average 55% net profit)  Mikes WIFE pushed him to expect more involvement in the commercial aspects (negociation) which was my strength, she thought "entertaining" was all it was, and after my first summer holiday for aroound 10 years with my new wife (Jacqui) we had a terrible arguement on my return to the office, and the special "trust" was broken. I left , walking away with little more than "pocket money"...and "partied" ..

During the next 6 months I took my wife and as many friends as I could muster to the "chique" restaurants, & went to night clubs frequented by then celebs like Jagger, Barry Sheen & various sports stars..until I looked at my bank balance and thought " I have to do something again". As I knew a lot of business owners & leaders through the "International Round Table" events & weekend meetings, it wasn't a surprise when JOHN P. a clever electronics designer (awful at organising) asked me to help him. Within a year his company went from losing to a 30% profit, thanks to re-organising , employing his wife and a (tough) secretary to keep him away from the "admin".

Word spread, local & global, and the next years were spent on small to medium company mergers & aquisitions, joint ventures, "networking" (before anyone used that word) and organising corporate investments, mostly in start-up, unusual  or "risk" management situations. Until I was approached by the wife of a new Telecommunications-related business owner (who had profited from the then "UK liberalization" ) who wanted me to handle the "business aspects" of her divorce, the "news" she had was a "miracle co-incidence" as THREE of my clients provided EXCLUSIVE (electronic) develeopment, installation & maintenance services to her soon-to-be EX-husband's company..(my own marriage was "stressed" by global workaholism" too..

Her husband & another Director of their group, sold one division for a Million GBP and disappeared to the Bahamas (or somewhere similar) leaving a MESS, but still a "mess" that the ADMINISTRATOR decided was worth (with large contracts with big banks & local government, for communications & security systems etc) worth over 1 million GBP. However, he didnt realise that my 3 clients, the "bosses wife" gave me 4 "aces" in the "negociation" game. after some weeks of excluding all other "buyers" and almost a day of meeting with the administrator and his 6 or 7 lawyer & accounting colleagues (at one time I called their bluff by walking away) "WE" obtained the busines for 70K GBP!

(during the 80's Lfc fortunes reflected the my own "bumpy ride"..recalling especially the finals of 81, 84, 86 , the tragedy of Heysel & HILLSBOROUGH)

.....to be continued..

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36-56

..The "haties" (80's) were seeing extremes already in my personal life reflected in the world at large, the demise of the former soviet union seemed at the same time to be leading to a negative wave, (almost like a "tide of evil" that vitually drowns us today), which maybe was the beginning of the much - feared "millenium bug" ...individual events mirrored the Heysel , Hillsborough and other tragic disasters ; in '85 I had an affair with my wife's cousin, a young actresss & Linda ; my close brother's sister-in-law. this latter relationship would cost me something like a million pounds & 8 compnies of my business "empire" but worst it would lose most of my family through physical, verbal & legal conflicts -not least a high-court drama, and although eventually succesfully fighting (side by side) against the "nuclear weapon" of the english high court (an "anton pillar mareva injunction" served in october 86 that would virtually bankrupt Jacqui and I), caused by my brother & Lin, and sponsored by my ex-business partners Mike, George Piddell & co.) my brother and I would never repair our friendship, Jacqui & I would seperate, my father would die after a mild accident, in hospital, & my sister would be lost to cancer, all within a few years!...

A lesson for all , especially would-be entrepreneurs, there are times when the mystery of this universe seems to favour you with unexpected co-incidences..dont lay back & expect all the work to be done..THESE are the times to put the effort & energy in, to back up your "good luck"...the "devil" (d'evil = "of evil" means the opposite of live = evil spelt backwards..) is waiting to kick you between the legs if you dont use your fortunate chances wisely...so it was for our "C.E.S consortium" in '89 having had the luck of obtaining a business worth over a million for only 70 thousand, the market went dry..stopped! The Hillsborough disaster was a shock which almost made me quit football alltogether - simultaneously a financial crisis meant that 90% of the contracts we expected to enjoy were on "hold" "and the tenders that we expected to win, became targets for any cheap cut-throat competitor to attack, our whole set up was budgeted for full occupation, as the 3 client companies I had were moved into the group HQ and with expectations of success , costs were incurred, bit Like Lfc right now,..a mess & in-fighting followed...so it was..into the "NEINties" (90's)

I resigned from the situation, with a less than happy bunch of clients turning from friends to enemies, lost along the way, However, some rare experiences with projects involving a Uk-German JV , a week in Seoul (being educated in "old cultures) by a Korean security camera manufacturer & a "special" experience hauling a group of japanese directors of a Toyota company, teaching THEM a lesson in manners, (each one a story all of its own) was beginning to shape the "enterprise to complete all enterprises" as I embarked on a multi-billion dollar project that would save me from boredom for the rest of my life, by forming a consortium, developing Unique multi-media communications to inter-connect over 300 partner-companies, providing nore than 500 products & services throughout 45 countries via the UKRANIAN space agency!...
 

This 7 year project, taking up virtually all my time, resources & assets, came to an end 3 years after my 2nd marriage to Jacqui (also now deceased) the earlier death of my father & sister, our marriage & my family split and the extreme wear & tear of 7 years, non-stop 24/7 either tarveling to or from or in a meeting (or thinking about one) ...had an affect...as someone said "Gods way of telling you to slow down"..in the EASTER weekend before we were due to test equipment in the final days of the project, easter sunday night of 1995, in de Panne (french speakers will understand the irony) I feel tired, have an early night, wake up in a fever, fall into coma and a week later I find myself connected, at all points, to a life-support in the intensive care station of the Flemish hospital of Veurne.

  "he's NOT the Messiah - hes a VERY naughty BOY!" ;)

It was the first time I had been really ill as an adult, having only missed about 5 working days in the previous 20 years. I was shocked by the belgian doctors news, as I really didnt know what day it was. My project was dead, I had nearly died  (the doctor told me I must rest, it would probably take years to get my strength back, but I "had a will to live") I lay on the bed "quiet" for the first time in my adult life...re-born?..I changed my life 1000% and decided I never again would care about making business or profits. I had dreams & visions of what I could do. Since those days I have done my utmost to respect life, and support other people, a few people noticed. The business partners hated me though, and ironic that also people from the "alternative world" hated me too.

Funny how when I was a "Business machine" relatively rich, young wizz-kid travelling around the world, how much I was "loved" (for what though? for what I could do for others, for the love of money?) ..I was living in Freiburg (chosen because in 93 I had met Franziska from there, and it was "central" for european travel) and having checked out of the hospital after 2 weeks instead of the 2 months they recommended, went back to my "penthouse office/apartment" but it was difficult to concentrate for more than an hour without resting. That made it difficult for (ex) business partners to believe I had "resigned"..I had a lot of "black-mail" sent to me and insults for daring to LEAVE such a massive business project, many aspects of which are just now coming into use, worldwide.(but not in my name!)

I met Leons mother at a lake-side party and eventually created him, after "chasing" her to Berlin, where we lived for several months before deciding that Freiburg was healthier place for a child. We found a house in a small village, but even decorating it & furnishing it together in her "emancipated" shared structure didnt help us stay together,it didnt help that the property owner didnt like me. Although I moved out, I still supported AH and the most wonderful event of my life was taking my son from her at our home - birth aided by a midwife, with candles & music. (11, august, 1996) However, this went sour when the "disappointed" business people spread rumours, resulting in a raid of my office-flat - the local police ridiculously "fishing" for something to charge me with. Conflicting with the "establishment" became my "raison d'etre"

Despite complaints at the local, national & international courts & lodgsing the beginning of a 12 year appeal process at the european court of Human rights the germans repeated violations of my rights and Leons mother (Annika H) was unsympathetic ("they must have a reason - the authorities dont make such mistakes" was her attitude) they repeated the "raids" 3 times. AH disappeared one day when I was due to pick 3-year old Leon up during a voluntary shared custody.My protests about the virtual abduction resulted in ME being investigated. I had never, in the whole of my travels & time around different parts of the worls had any serious conflcits with police until "germoney". I had become very active in the alternative world campaigning for equal rights, working on peace campaigns & ecological protests, local & global, and mixed with every ethnic group imaginable, I was often the only "white" face..

I gave soem english presentations to mature students at the Freiburg english school, for fun rather than profit, as I helped the schools managing director & his wife with their "social programme" where I met Margit. During the time I had Leon, Margit became attracted to me, (not so) discretely making it clear to the other ladies in my life that she wanted an "exclusive" relationship/ I was having a good time with Simone (cinema) , Margit (dancing) & Sabine..as my focus & physical strength had returned, even if the problems with AH and Leon concerned me. Margit experienced my care for him and told me "Chris, you are a good man, a good father" and made it clear she wanted a relationship with me. Dispite the german state oppression, we lived together, and Margit gave birth to Noela on 28th November, 2001. (my Lfc support had been restricted mostly to watching at the local irish pub with other "ex-pats" but I did get to the UEFA final, Dortmund, even if it took me 2 weeks to recover)

LeonNoela

Margit's (bavarian) racist parents hated me. They put pressure on her to split with me, even during the pregancy, but I had always said that I would be there, for her & baby Noela, the arrival of a little girl helping me, in some ways, get over my dear mothers death. However, Margit then coldly decided I should leave them one month AFTER I had supported her through the birth. However I had found AH & re-established contact with ny son Leon,. even though my elder son ; Adam had died (indirectly due to being abused), I still hungered for family life. I found an old farmhouse I could afford to buy in the Alsace region (France) close to the Rhine border, only 30 kms from Freiburg, and demanded that Margit let me have our agreed shared custody of Noela. This worked well, I built my time around looking after her, (AH made it difficult for Leon to be with me)  I loved the time we spent and seeing her grow,

until..

I discovered by accident that Margit was planning to betray our agreement, and hooked up with a very dubious guy, who I felt might abuse Noela. I kept Noela with me for a few days, asking Margit to explain, she lied, and literally arranged an AMBUSH (in the woods near our home) & abduction of Noela, during an attack on me by heavies who may  have been hired by her parents. Margit then disappeared for a while. Pressure and the risk of me reporting her & her accomplises brought her back into contact, and in early 2005 I once again had contact with Noela. Margit again betrayed her promises and the german state interferred again & I lost regular contact with Noela. As a Liverpool Supporter the European Champions league final in istanbul was a major event of that time, and THAT is also "another story"...The arrival of Rafa Benitez the previous season, brought renewed pride & hope (I went to Graz to see his very first game in charge of our team)

The following season, the success of my team helped distract me from the loss of family and my estranged beloved Leon & Noela. Apart from a couple of brief glimpses, Annika blocked all attempts to see my son, and Margit, having lost in court against me, moved to another country (I tacked them to Dublin
& took my dutch girlfriend JD as witness in 2008 to try to give Noela birthday presents, but Margit kicked the bag out of my hands into the street, in front of my daughter, and complained to the "garda") during this decade I have seen most european games and been to Anfield about once a month. I moved to Zwolle in 2006, and since then lived part-time with JD in Zwolle (NL) ..until may 2009 and nearby the flemish belgian border regions near the villages of Merksplas & ZonderEigen (about 50 kms from Antwerpen) where I organised charity & football weekends on a not-for-profit basis, coached kids & supported some talented youth muscians etc.

early in 2010 I left the remote cabin, that had been SNOWBOUND for much of the winter, and am now in the "Balkans"..for the first time (its the only region of Europe that I didnt know, until now)
 

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