Red tongued Rachel

I guess even though I've been away from home for over 20 years I still come across as a 'lad from Wigin' and that's an image I make no effort to shed.

At that point I asked for a time out, I didn't think it relevant to the show, nor to Ultra, that I should need to account for what I'd done during the 23 years I was a resident and citizen of Canada.

The producer advised me to tell it like it is (the BBC had already done a background check on me). So, there I was, left to "explain" to Rachel and the other Dragons that... in 1995 (due to very peculiar circumstances) I'd been trading with Calvin Klein Canada. I was selling 15-17 tonnes of their perfumes a month, directly from CK, into the grey market (yes me, this 'lad from Wigin'), well Canada is like that, still a land of great opportunity.

Rachel was so gobsmacked that she went for the jugular, told me I was a fantasist and all that, but was reined in by at least a couple of the Dragons as her comments were based on no more than her shock at my revelations.

I should add that at the time, unknown to any of us there and then, Rachel's company "Red Letter Days" was (to say the least) in difficulties, and within weeks went down the tubes owing around £12 million or so.

Tractorloads

In retrospect I can understand why it went against the grain with Rachel hearing me say how well I'd already done, so I put it down to bad timing on that front, as since then Rachel has contacted me and we get on well.

I think it fair to say that in the conflagration that arose on the day I at least held my ground, I think they all learned that there's not only dragons that can breathe fire!

Doug Richard (the Californian Dragon, a decent guy), went on to say...

"You came across as an engineer, now we find you're a businessman!"

My response was, just because I'd traded for eight years with CK Canada and CK NY, that didn't make me a businessman (a title I'd avoid like the plague). Doug went on to say, "but you've been buying perfumes by the tractor trailer load for years". My response to that was how stupid would I need to be to miss out on an opportunity like that, 'you don't need to be a jockey to know a horse when you see one!'

I guess I don't see myself as a businessman, I just don't like the spin the users of the title try to attain for themselves (back to that Wigin Lad attitude again).

The debate went on for a further 30 minutes, during which I think the Dragons thought they'd be better biting something less able to defend themself than this little guy!