Blood in the water….

December 8, 2005

My boss is a difficult man to work for – you gotta kinda get into a better the devil you know kind of place with him – the initially frightening aspects of his character become eccentricities after a while – like the way he hangs upside down from his ankles from the door frame to sort his bad back out (I shit thee not).

He has his many detractors – but today he pulled off one of the greatest trades I’ve ever seen – he noted a companies buying had stepped up from the way they were chasing for shipping info, he knew there’d been an ownership buy out meaning purchasing patterns may of changed, he had a 40ft container coming into port containing teas we really needed to get shot of and the timing was perfect – 4.50pm just before the teas landed we could divert for delivery elsewhere if needed – boom goes the dynamite - he called and caught them at the right time – buyer bought without even seeing the samples – an hour later the costs would have been much higher after landing fees etc – basically this was a cream covered chef hat wearing Kylie of a sweet trade – it all came together – the yin, the yang, the magpies, the red skies, the dice playing snake eyes – when he finished the call how he didn’t crack a smile I’ll never know – keep your poker voice while the game is in play, but when it’s all done you can let it out surely?!

I love it when a plan comes together – but it’s even better when that plan comes together out of nothing in about five minutes and suddenly you’ve sold 20Metric tons without blinking.

I remember like gospel my trades that set me rushing – the first fibre deal in Malawi, the 5 x 40ft merry go round in Vietnam, the Kenya D2 recipe, the Malay India discovery and boosting the Dempo BP2’s to Pakistan – but I bedone-seen about everytheen if I ever saw a better trade than the one that freaky bastard pulled off today.

Spo | December 8, 2005