DAVID BENTATA

  Chapter 32 – BUSINESS BOYCOTT  Perhaps this chapter does not entirely fit with the general idea of my stories, of my life. But I want to explain, clarify and encourage any of my readers who have met with severe setbacks, especially setbacks in business.  It must have been late 1960s or very early 1970s, long before TEO, our family business then, became as most can remember it. I ended up working there, very much under duress.  In my first years working there, I HATED the shop! Having been criminally careless in school, being so laid back about any sort of work that I was almost horizontal, I felt I was sentenced to life in the Alcatraz of the family business. Not just that but with a boss that was my father, a top salesman, the handymen who could paint, do carpentry, elementary electricity, mechanic, a tasteful window dresser, running a business and with the capacity to work 18 hours a day fuelled only buy 3 packs of cigarettes!  (In fact, Dad had won the Quee...

  Chapter 31 – BOUZNIKA & “GINGER” Gibraltar in the 1970s was an amazing little place. The Frontier was shut tight and we Gibraltarians all rallied to protect our home itself from the expected difficulties   of yet another siege (the 6th? 7th?) by our neighbours to the North. Millennials have .... NPI ... no idea what it was like then, and when we, the older generation of today talk about those times, I'm sure it sounds to them very much like when our own parents talked to us about “the War” and “the Evacuation”. The sad thing is that most of our parents have died and we did not have the patience to listen, not just to hear, but listen with attention to the stories they told us. Now it is our turn to tell our stories to a generation super-glued to mobile phones and technology, and subconsciously thinking that we who were born in the 40s and 50s and 60s belong to a David Attenborough documentary on the Rock’s Stone Age. Let me provide you with just a vignette of tha...

  Chapter 30 – The Years of the “Mouse” (Part 2/2) Following on from part 1, while the sale of these flats was going through, I received a call. "Gazoo?" "Yes???....." " I am Lukas..." Lukas ??? "What can I do for you… .Lukas?" "Mouse owes me €90,000" "I do not know anything about that nor do I want to. Mouse is just a client of my real estate company." "But you, Gazoo, are selling 5 flats for him and I want you to give me €90,000 when you get paid!" This was not a request. His voice was cold and clear despite a heavy, east European accent. "You need to speak to Mouse about this. I myself will not be receiving the money from the sale. I understand that will be a bank transaction, not a cash one" "I have spoken to Mouse and he has promised to pay me as soon as the sale goes through" "OK... so you deal with him. I am just the estate agent" "You make sure I ...

  MY LIFE© Chapter 30 – The Years with the “Mouse” (Part 1 of 2) A few months after the buying and selling of Nokias …yes, yes, and re-selling the same bloody Nokias!...   in fact during the time I was fighting for a refund of VAT, Mouse called me rather urgently. "Gazoo, I need a favour," "Yes...?" " Can you come by my office?   I am moving out and in a bit of a hurry and my wife has not come back with the car yet." "OK .... see you in 20 minutes" "Eeerrr ... Can you make it 5?" Something was up ….. so I drove to his office in La Linea. Mouse was waiting outside with about 10 or 12 box files next to him. He appeared rather nervous and kept looking over his shoulder all the time. He was leaving those premises and moving to new offices in Puerto de la Duquesa. We stuffed the box files into the boot of my and drove off together. Along the way he explained that he was doing very good import/export business and had partnere...