I could have
Been a millionaire.

I believe in that old saying no names no Packdrill.

In the mid 1980’s I was very friendly with a business couple man and wife ( B ) and
( E ) they were a wonderful couple which is more than could be said of their son he was an egoistical arrogant man I had a few dealings with him that in the end led to a complete non communication between us his father I found had given up the uneven task of helping him out while his mother continued to do so without her husbands knowledge.

My association with him began as a favour to his mother he needed the skills of a builder one who could plan a job of work and also carry it out I was that kind of builder although I had retired from work due to ill health.

He has not worked for months now this job has come up and he cannot find anyone to do the building work so unless you help him he will have to let the work go.

Certainly ( E ) I will give him a hand for a week or two was my reply to his mothers plea for my help If only I had known what I was letting myself in for I would have not been so ready to offer my services I would have run a mile.

The first job we did together went ok for all his faults and lack of skills in the social side of life he was a craftsman who knew his job but totally lacked any skill at business or management the end of that job should have warned me but I was aglow with what I had achieved in that work I had lost none of my skills and had always been proud of any job I had finished this work was no exception.

The manager of the plant approached us when he got word that the work was finished we took him on a tour of inspection before leaving he said call into the office before you go as I might be able to pay you off tonight as long as you can give me your invoice or if you like anytime tomorrow will suit me.

I stood staring at ( F ) he had just dropped a bombshell what do you think we should charge him for the work I had been asked what the hell I replied when I was able to speak didn’t you give him an estimate before we started.

Well I told him it would cost about £xxxxx or thereabout how close are we to your estimate I asked well we are about £xxxx over spend it was getting worse by the minute how much exactly give me the receipts and I will try to work it out I don’t bother keeping receipts that way the tax man can get to you was his reply.

I worked all night on the figures trying to get a balance with what he owed for the materials our time and a percentage as a profit margin I had more at stake than just wages as I had arranged with the building supplies company for the credit I could end up being responsible for them getting paid.

I had never been in this situation before forward planning was my middle name this was a cock up from start to finish I had been told that he had run his own business warning bells started ringing why had he not been able to employ a working builder.

Come the morning I had worked out an invoice I had to cut the profit margin out completely and even then the invoice was far in excess of ( F’s ) verbal estimate now that was the thing I hoped would save us a verbal estimate the manager had nothing in writing.

We sat in the office and I presented our invoice this is a lot more than we originally agreed to the manager finished reading the invoice well the reason for that is if you look on page two you will see I droned on and on going over the items in the invoice page by page claiming we had to put in a better quality item than was first quoted for extra work involved to make parts of the job safer to work on or in.

At last I finished my desperate bluff on the outside a keen business man but on the inside sweating it out yes I can see where the extra came in and thank you for a job well done now I want you to do another job on our Swansea plant ok I said we will submit an Itemised estimate for you by next weekend we can start the week after.

In the van driving home ( F ) was elated wow this will see me through for a while he said and we have that other job to do for him count me out I said I cannot work for you I only did this to get you back on your feet I will do the estimate for you but that’s all it also rankled that I had been put into a position of bluffing that manager that was not the way things where done we were coming away with bare wages no profit nothing to celebrate .

We were passing a trading site ( F ) pointed to a large shed he owes me money for the last job I did for him why have you not been paid well I stopped doing work for him until he paid me he said turn round we will go in and get your money reluctantly ( F ) turned round we entered the compound and I got out come on I called get a move on very slowly ( F ) got out of the car a guy came out of the big shed yea what can I do for you he called.

Hi there we have called to see why you have not settled our account oh who are you I am the new manager so have not caught up with things yet come into the office we all went into his office now who did you say you where and how much do we owe
( F )told him the details and the guy looked through the files oh yes but this was last September this was now August almost a year had gone by.

Yes we had a problem with our records on computer had a virus the glib lie rolled off my tongue we had to go through all our written records to put them back on computer we sent you a letter of explanation then our invoice at the beginning of the year I am sorry I do not have any letter or invoice from you on file .

You can see you owe us the account and that the account has not been paid we were back in the van driving towards home we were not only richer by our visit but had signed up for some more work the particular skills of ( F ) were much in demand.

The following day ( E ) telephoned can you help him out for a few weeks as manager for these jobs he has to do I thought long and hard for I really did not want to do it I was retired my health was still bad but I agreed I employed two men they did the physical work I just kept an eye on things.
A few months had gone by since I had finished working for ( F ) as his wife had started to keep the books one of the men I employed acted as foreman so I was not needed the telephone rang can you help me out you know I have a shop yea I replied guardedly I need a lift to Llanelli.

I knew as I was signing the cheque this was a bad idea we had got to the store but
(F ) had said that he had forgotten his money so had asked me for a loan to pay for this essential stock over the next couple of days he ducked and dived I was just in time stopping my cheque that led to all sorts of problems but at least I did not lose my money.

( E ) had telephoned the night before can you help ( F ) to move his stock to a new shop sure I will I replied but why is he moving again I had heard he was on the move frequently alarm bells should have been ringing but I trusted ( E ) the new shop turned out to be a recently vacated undertakers embalming parlour and we never could get rid of the smell of the fluid this is where I first had the smell of the money we could have made.

Three weeks had gone by when ( F ) came to the house I have a deal for you he told me I listened and it really was a good deal one that needed checking on but could make a lot pf money I checked and decided I would go in.

We were to sell products he had a guy called ( S ) who had experience in the product and its sale basically I would put up the bond required ( F ) would supply the premises his shop and ( S ) would put in his time and knowledge selling the product the town had no outlet for this product we would have a monopoly.

( F ) invited us all to dinner in a hotel we sat round the table the three of us and our wives we laid the plans for the future it was going to be a success we could not fail if we all pulled together by next year we would be wealthy.

( S ) and I started the next day doing the rounds of the suppliers of our products he was well known so we had no difficulty we even arranged that we could start trading the very next day they trusted us as my appointment with the solicitor we had chosen to set up everything legally between the three of us was not until the following Monday.

I had a good feeling about this ( S ) I saw was well liked and trusted by our suppliers they had supplied us with a van full of advertising material we installed all this material around the shop it looked great.

From day one customers poured in we sold and sold we did not have to carry any stock as we had a same day delivery deal with the suppliers we supplied the orders they supplied and delivered the goods all was done by telephone.

I had cancelled two appointments with the solicitor as ( F ) was missing we could not get hold of him two weeks had gone by and we had not officially set up the business simply because he was not to be found I called into the shop boy am I glad to see you came from ( S ) two guys called in an told me that we had no right to trade from this shop as we had not got permission hell not again I thought.

I sat with the two guys they had done ( F ) a favour by letting him store his goods in the premises not to trade from there but it was not all bad as I came to an agreement with them about leasing the premises when we finally set up business legally.

I had a sack full of money at my home the results of our first couple of weeks trading I had been unable to bank it as we had not set up a trading bank account in fact I was getting pretty nervous we were trading illegally our suppliers thought we were a business but we had not set up the company every time I made arrangements to sign up ( F ) would not turn up everything we had set up so far was in our three names.

( S ) and I were being pressured from different people we had a talk this wont do we cannot go on like this we were victims of our success money was pouring in I spoke to ( F ) last night on the phone he rang me and told me to sign up the company but keep his name out of it but he still wanted a share I told ( S ) that I was not happy with the way things had gone with ( F ) and I did not like the Idea of having a partner like (F ) we decided to cut him out more bad news was to follow we were told by ( F ) that he had sorted out the change of use of the premises with the planning dept of the council and that everything was ok not so we had a visit from a council employee telling us that we had to stop trading from these premises as we had not got any planning permission that would take months to get enough was enough as far as I was concerned we ceased trading I paid off all our suppliers in cash paid the two guys who owned the premises from our sack split the rest three ways for we had not yet told (F ) that we were going on our own events had overtaken us a couple of months later I saw that a shop just like ours opened in the town he runs around in a big car lives in the best area of Swansea I wished him the best of luck there could have been I.

Did I ever learn NO ( F ) telephoned he was in a panic can you come down and give me some advice sure against the advice of my wife I went to see him.
I have been given a contract he told me that some months ago he had applied for a contract to a board who had been set up by the unions to help redundant craftsmen
( F ) came into this scheme so what’s the problem I asked I need someone to sort out the estimates ok what’s the job I asked I listened and was convinced I was being given Bullshit this job was worth millions the phone rang and ( F ) answered it here talk to my partner he said into the phone he handed the telephone to me I was amazed what the hell is the matter with you I asked ( F ) keeping one hand over the mike of the phone it’s the guy from the contract he wants an answer tonight .

Once again I was stuck I had little or no information other than the Bullshit he had told me my instinct was to get the hell out of there but foolishly I put the phone to my ear Hi there we were just discussing some of the points you gave my partner can you go over them again with me certainly came back the reply and I was told that ( F ) had indeed been given this contract under the scheme and that all what was required of us tonight was a rough estimate to put to the board this in no way would be binding as we would be given time to put in a proper estimate anyway he gave me details I could not believe I was hearing this ok so what shall I put before the meeting tomorrow he finally asked once again I was flying without a plane you do realise I spoke up that this will have to be estimated in phases I was searching for numbers to give him a verbal estimate and you do realize that until we quantify a proper estimate we can only give you a vague estimate that’s all that is required at this time came back the reply ok I took a deep breath eight Million the first phase ok that’s fine that is the figure I will put before the meeting tomorrow I look forwards to receiving your written estimate how many others are bidding for this contract I asked no one he replied under the scheme as long as you qualify the contract is awarded to your company.

I sat staring at ( F ) I was seduced by the thought that I could easily become a millionaire we made plans in the cold light of day after a poor nights sleep I realised that there was no way we could take this on by ourselves we needed professional help I telephoned around and had an appointment with a company arranged .

We were accompanied by his father ( B ) when we went to the appointment and as soon as we were shown into the outer office I saw that one of the company directors was an old boyhood friend of mine I had not seen in twenty years we showed them the plans and detailed description of the job we had received from the scheme committee Wow this is bigger than we have had on our books for a few years we were told I asked their advice on the best route to take at the end of a long discussion a plan was formed they knew and I knew it was too big for us but it was not too big for them to take on they made a suggestion that they would take on the contract but that it would have to be in their name for legal and practical reasons we would be subcontracted to do the work that we were qualified to do or at least what ( F ) was specialised in I would also have an input the net result was that we would all benefit from this contract my initial verbal estimate over the phone was well short for phase one but that did not matter my old friend said that financing a contract like this the way it was set up would not be a problem at the end of the day the government was funding it so we would meet no obstacles and anyway no matter what happened they would be financing the whole thing we would have to find no capital at all.

Did I say no Obstacle we had a big one right there in that office (F ) that contract is in the name of my firm and it is staying in the name of my firm he spoke up he had sat there throughout the meeting not saying much and now he drops his bombshell nobody else is taking that contract away from me he stood up and walked out we all stood staring at his departing figure in silence.

Ok I will get back to you we will have a talk with him we talked for two weeks and got nowhere his parents myself his wife we all failed to talk him into going along with the deal then his mother died his father moved in with his sister that was that I gave up the way the scheme was set up the contract was his we could not touch it without his say so but I often dream of those lost chances of making millions.

Over time I found out a lot about (F )
He was so stupid in business matters all the things he had pulled on us was because he did not want to leave tracks to himself for his creditors to catch up with him eventually they did they took all that his mother had left him house shop premises his father died then I lost all contact with him. Thank god.
One might ask the question was I naïve or even stupid in my dealings with him but to be a judge one had to be there to listen to what we were offered.

In the first place I helped at the request of a dear friend but my subsequent actions where ruled by greed one had to hear what was on offer and see what could have been made of the situation we found ourselves in no one could judge against me more harshly than myself for all that I had learned in business over the years went out the window when big money was on offer.

Sunday Morning 2001.



With the bright early sunshine streaming through the car windows we sat waiting for the heat of the mornings sunshine to burn off the last of the nights misty dew the morning was warm even for seven o clock in the morning.

Enjoying the coffee we had brought with us we never went far without our flask of hot water and ingredients for making our favourite beverage a habit we had picked up during our times in America.

We watched as the Gulls swooped down to the surface of the sea picking up the morsel’s of food that floated on the millpond like surface at Aberafan on the South Wales coast the tide was at low ebb.



Time to stretch our legs or at least mine as I strolled along one hand on the handle of the wheelchair as it glided along with the minimum of effort on my part we where passed by cyclists on the cycle path that ran the length of the promenade a green strip of Tarmac that separated the cycle track from the pedestrian walkway.



We chatted as we walked with other like minded souls who had come for their early morning stroll it was surprising how many people where about besides the cyclists and walkers male and female joggers trotted by with a good morning hurriedly spoken they were gone.



We stopped to watch the two men with metal detectors as they scoured the golden sands for anything that would reward them for their efforts this was not an unlikely thing to happen it was not unknown for treasure to be found on this seven mile stretch of golden sandy beach I sat on the low stone wall topped with wooden planking placed there as a seating for all.



The Spanish treasure ships that had foundered off this coastline are well documented seeking a safe shelter from storms they found instead a treacherous wind that drove them into the coastal rocks strong currents also contributed to their downfall and of course wreckers also plied their murderous trade along these coasts modern ships have also found that although they have powerful engines to drive them through the sea those same engines are no match for the wind and currents when they work in harmony to bring disaster to the unwary.



A great deal of Spanish gold has been found along the beaches of this coast from the tip of the Gower peninsular to

Llantwit Major Gold coinage and artefacts has been washed up on the storm beaches people have been well rewarded for their finds it is not only Gold that gets washed up that is valuable artefacts of tremendous value have been found.



More recent artefacts still exist a 2nd world war tank lies buried in the sand a victim of soft sand and an incoming tide for fifty odd years it has lain where it first sank sometimes the sand will be uncovered just enough to show the top of the tank but that is soon lost to sight again at the next tide as the water once again causes the sand to shift and cover up it’s victim.



Parts of wartime radar and gun emplacements buried by drifting sands are sometimes uncovered but only briefly until a few years ago the keel of a ship that had been driven aground lay exposed on the sandy beach but that has been removed.



The sea channel we were looking over had been the scene of countless acts of heroism by Lifeboat crews from along the coast in their endeavours to save the lives of foundered ships many among the lifeboat crews had lost their lives in trying to save unfortunate seamen fighting an uneven battle with the huge storms that had battered their ships to helpless hulks many among those seamen owe their lives to the Lifeboat crews.



As we sat and relaxed in the heat of the sun we glanced across the channel to the English coastline that could be plainly seen across the waters of the channel Somerset Devon and Cornwall stretched across the horizon by now we knew from experience the holiday makers in the resorts of that opposite coastline would be busy going about the business of enjoying themselves.



Looking around us we saw that it was also taking place here time had flown by as people we knew had stopped to chat and pass the time of day on the lower walkway people had set up their deckchairs whilst others lay in the hot sunshine getting their tan in shape the sandy beach also had its share of folk many had set up brightly coloured sun shade brollies others swam in the sea skimpily clad bodies lay basking in the sun some of the more daring among the young girls sat or lay topless time had certainly passed since we had first started our walk.



I think it is time for us to call in for lunch five hours had gone by since we had arrived and the sea air had made us feel the pangs of a starting hunger wishing to remain at the seafront we decided to partake of Sunday lunch at the Four Winds pub and restaurant this pub was on the seafront roadway as was the Aberafan Hotel and various other eating establishments.



We knew from past visits that each one gave quality and value for money their menu’s comparing very favourable with other restaurants in the cities of Swansea and Cardiff on the whole the people of Glamorgan where very fortunate for wherever one decided to eat whether it be in the valley’s of Cwmavon, Bryn, Measteg, or in the coastal towns of Aberafan, Porthcawl, Bridgend and all the coastal villages that sported the individuals restaurant quality was second to none we have travelled extensively in foreign climes and feel that we can form an opinion and compare ours with theirs our restaurants do NOT come second best to any .



We continued our walk to the end of the promenade there were small sailing dinghies dancing through the waves their bright coloured sails a contrast between the blue cloudless sky and the sun danced ripple of the sea a picture postcard of a scene at the beach.



Resuming our walk heading back to where we had parked the car this time walking through the footpaths of the seafront gardens the flower beds and shrubs gave a splash of colour and scented the air with their blossoms in the paddling pools and boating lake children where playing and their laughter was infectious as we walked we laughed at their antics.



Looking at the Steelworks in the distance past the dock cranes unloading coal from the huge super cargo vessels moored at the deepwater harbour we saw a plume of steam rise high into the air from the coke quencher the tall blast furnace and cranes like statues of architecture not an unpleasant sight at all.



Before leaving Aberafan beach we sat for a little while watching the fishermen and ladies beach casting from the shoreline now and again one would shout with excitement as he or she wound in their line to which was attached their latest catch flatfish seemed to be the main catch with a few Mackerel.



Time was as a younger man I fished these beaches and came away with a variety of fish Sea Bass was an everyday catch then the waters abounded with fish Tope, Plaice, Sea Bass, Whiting, Cod, and to watch the sea boil with the splashing of millions of mackerel was a sight to see sadly times have changed.



Large kites where aloft sailing on a very light breeze taking one last look at this tremendous asset to our town we drove away from the sea heading back into town we where both very tired but happy that we had spent such a glorious day at the sea side.