Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Meet Polly, before & after.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1pqMWDDVTk

Thats all i can picture right now lol

Ha!

Very good.

I'm a bit of a dab hand with my I-pad as it happens, though I can't quote, or C & P stuff. 

[tikay]

The full story of Polly is here.......

https://www.thedodo.com/horse-found-near-death-makes-a-704490561.html

[tikay]

Click to see full-size image.

[Rod Paradise]

I know you like baseball, I thought you'd like this video, where a young lad gets given a fly ball and gives it to the girl behind him, he's rightly rewarded for such a nice gesture...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2189070-young-boy-gives-up-foul-ball-to-young-girl-at-fenway-park?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

[Rod Paradise]

Of course while the boy in the above video has got class, style & a kind heart, the boy in the one below has got game....

[sonour]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1pqMWDDVTk

Thats all i can picture right now lol

Ha!

Very good.

I'm a bit of a dab hand with my I-pad as it happens, though I can't quote, or C & P stuff. 

What do you mean you can't copy and paste ?

Grrr

[BigAdz]

For you Mr K.

Just got back to the office and found out I am taking the bosses place at a Concrete Road Building Symposium in Prague in two weeks.

I am presuming it is some kind of conference. Sounds about as dull as it can be. It only needs for each of the speakers to be presenting in their native tongue(with notes after!), and it might not turn out so bad!

Ever heard/or been to aConcrete Symposium Tikay?

[Nakor]

Interested in your opinion.

If our friends up North vote "Yes",  can/will the BBC survive?

Had a very interesting conversation with a very vocal No campaigner yesterday about the knock on effects to my local area (If yes wins) and was very surprised at the number that would hit my part of the world.
His viewpoint on some of the bigger shared services including the BBC was quite eye opening also.

[tikay]

For you Mr K.

Just got back to the office and found out I am taking the bosses place at a Concrete Road Building Symposium in Prague in two weeks.

I am presuming it is some kind of conference. Sounds about as dull as it can be. It only needs for each of the speakers to be presenting in their native tongue(with notes after!), and it might not turn out so bad!

Ever heard/or been to aConcrete Symposium Tikay?

One or two.......

I find the machinery & it's many uses more interesting than the material, in truth. Where would we be without concrete, I-pads & sex drive? Life would be very dull. 

I googled that "Symposium" (what a daft word to relate to concrete!), & I'll confess my pulse quickened when I realised that the Czech Cement Association were involved. Wowzer.

Anyway, as you asked, & I've reached the reminiscing age, Concrete Exhibition story follows.....

[tikay]

For you Mr K.

Just got back to the office and found out I am taking the bosses place at a Concrete Road Building Symposium in Prague in two weeks.

I am presuming it is some kind of conference. Sounds about as dull as it can be. It only needs for each of the speakers to be presenting in their native tongue(with notes after!), and it might not turn out so bad!

Ever heard/or been to aConcrete Symposium Tikay?

I was "sent" to Frankfurt for a Concrete Exhibition, it was 24 years ago, as we'll see shortly.

My Chairman thought it would be a good idea. I was a Non-Exec Director of The KB Group of  Companies, who still exist, but in a different form....

http://www.kbrebar.co.uk/company-history


http://www.kbreinforcements.co.uk/

The various owners were....

■Burns-Anderson Ltd
 ■Richardson Bros
 ■Akeler Group
 ■Bowmer & Kirkland Ltd

I worked for Bowmer & Kirkland, who purchased KB from Ken Buckley.

I had shares in Burns-Anderson, (inside info) but they went busto (no inside info...) & Richardson Bros purchased it for a pittance. 

The Richardson Brothers were from the West Midlands, proper Black Country lads. They developed Merry Hill, Fort Dunlop, & a host of other Out Of Town Shopping Centres, at a time when they were the new thing.

I would not go so far as to suggest the Richardsons were "wide", more "sharp", Sort of, you know, pushed the boundaries a bit.

They also owned an outfit called "Regentcrest plc" (now in Liquidation).


http://companies.findthebest.co.uk/l/2490021/Regentcrest-Public-Limited-Company-in-Belfast-United-Kingdom

I had shares in them, too. Inside info. Cost me 10p each, & I had 10,000 of them (£1,000 worth). 

This was during the property boom in the 80's. The price of those shares rocketed. I decided to sell when they reached £1. They burst through £1 & were £1.30 within days.

I'll sell @ £1.50.

Bla bla.

Anyway, as the shares kept soaring, I go off to San Francisco, where I went Annually as initially a Graduate, then a Lecturer, at the AMA. (American Management Association). 


http://www.amanet.org/

Whilst there, (I always went for 14 days per year), I managed to find a news-stand in Downtown San Fran which sold the FT. BOOM!

I buy a copy, & can't believe my eyes. Regentcrest shares were worth.....£3.48. Wowzer. SELL SELL SELL.

This was before the age of the internet & mobile phones, of course, so not easy to sell them from the Intercontinental Hotel, Nob Hill San Fran. 

I decided to sell the moment I got home from San Fran.

I flew home, on the long forgotten Pan-Am, on October 19th, 1987. Later known as "Black Monday". By the time I got home, the Shares were worth 1p.

Anyway, bear with me.....   

[doubleup]

Click to see full-size image.

stop mspainting people's faces 

[tikay]

John Kirkland, who owns Bowmer & Kirkland (B & K), thought I was the best thing since sliced bread, & saw me, potentially, as a future Chairman of the Group.

He was a great, great bloke, & I loved him - still do - to bits.

http://www.bandk.co.uk/history/management-structure/

He thought he saw something in me, (he did not get everything right...) & wanted to help me get better, hence the annual trips to AMA in America, & making me Non-Exec of 11 or 12 Group Companies.

Anyway, I was made Non-Exec of the KB Group when B & K purchased them. The idea was that I understood, lived & breathed, the B & K Group philosophy, & already headed up the B & K Steel Reinforcement division, a company called Keyfix at the time. So I could help the KB Group understand our ways, & in the process, I'd learn about Managing businesses.

All B & K Group Companies held Monthly Board Meetings, & JNK attended every one.

So, once a month, we'd do the "KB Tour".

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John had a great big fu black Merc, top of the range, & so I would be the driver. Ooohhh.

We'd leave Heage in Derbyshire @ 5am, stop at Birch Services on the M62 for brekkie, & be at KB Manchester for the Board Meeting @ 0730 sharp. Woe betitde any latecomers, JNK was a right stickler for timekeeping.

That Meet would be done by around 0930, then we'd head south to Brierley Hill, to have the Midland Bar Steel Stockholders Board Meeting. I attended those Board Meetings @ Midland Bar for 3 years, & never quite worked out what they did. Something to do with selling steel suspension parts to the car industry I think.

From there, around 3pm, we'd then head south west, all the way down to Taunton, for the KB Western Meet, but that'd be the next morning, so we would book into a hotel for the night.

John was proper OCD. Every single e-Mail & letter, to & from B & K, had to be read by him. He'd reply via dictaphone, remember them?

We'd get to the hotel, & I had to carry his "box" (of papers) into the Hotel. Think of the Chancellor's case. Not like that. John was a skinflint with stuiff like that, so he used a big cardboard box. Full of papers.

I'd carry his box up to his room for him, then we'd have dinner, then he went back to his room & I left him to it.

I'd collect him @ 6am next morning, & without fail, the box would be empty. God knows when he ever slept.

[tikay]

The Board Meet in Taunton was always a feisty one, as the MD was a right grumpy old sod, set in his ways, so we clashed. Similar types often do clash.

After that meet, we'd then set off, right across southern UK, for Sheerness in Kent. Long long drive that, especially when JNK nagged me every yard because I was a bit growly with the KB Western MD.

He had this thing that just because we disliked someone, it did not mean they did a bad job.

Set aside those prejudices Tony, look at the results. And anyway, be reasonable, see it my way.   

Jeez, he taught me so much about life, & people. But I could never be nice to the KB Western bloke, no matter how hard I tried.

So, eventually, we'd reach Sheerness in Kent & have the last of the 4 Board Meetings, then I'd drive us back to Derbyshire.

That's a LONG drive & a lot of hours in 2 days, but when we got back to Heage, I'd drop JNK off at the office so he could catch up on stuff. He'd be back at his desk 6am the next morning, too.