Member cassyput

Born in Iraq with a sister born in Bahrain, a brother born in Kuwait, a mother born in China and a grandfather born in Burma I, naturally, live in Bath.

Boarding school where I loved rugby, cricket, soccer, riding and tennis then of to see the world - getting as far as Jersey.

Having to earn a living the wine trade seemed like a sensible lifestyle and aiming for a Master of Wine a pleasant objective until I was made redundant - having gained a Diploma. Getting married and realising that lifestyle work didn't pay the bills I then, of course, became a student for 2 years at Brighton Polytechnic [DMS] and Warwick University Business School [MSc Marketing]. Naturally this led to divorce.

Learning nothing from this rather clear message, I threw myself into work with American Express, Welbeck Finance, Citibank, Royal Insurance, Oriel Group, CGA, RPM and Person to Person making several billions for shareholders and a (very) few quid for myself launching, growing, turning round, buying out companies.

Luckily Margaret - yes, someone else was foolish enough to take the plunge and marry me - seemed to feel that all this activity was quite a good thing and 25 years later with two wonderful children [Benjamin who has just finished Chinese in Liverpool and who has gone back to Beijing later this year to teach English for a while whilst he polished his fluency in Mandarin and Victoria who has just finished her A levels and on a gap year], 2 cats and a dog we are still together.

I still love food and wine (as my photo shows), cooking, watching rugby (Bath Rugby, of course) painting, shooting and walking.