The Shoe Buyer Survivor Story
Did you ever end up at work with your slippers still on after one late night too many thinking how in the hell has this happened!? No one on the train had batted an eyelid...The whole 50min journey! Even worse when your job is a shoe buyer! Thankfully I discovered a sample pair that fitted a treat after I snuck into the office and flew up the stairs before anyone had chance to notice!!
Thinking I needed to take life more seriously, I jumped at the opportunity to become the new wholesale coordinator for a shoe brand we owned, to sell in Japan. This was just what I needed, a focus, new frontiers...No more late nights and slippers for me...I was moving on up!
The Big Big boss announced that people from the Japanese company were coming to London to pay us a visit… And the Grandmother, the head of the family, would be at all meetings, even though she understood very little English and was well into her 80’s... Keen to impress and cement the budding business relationship the Big Big boss announced that he, along with myself, would be entertaining the whole party at the best Japanese restaurant in London…
Great, I thought, time to shine…
We were seated at a magnificent oval table, our own private dining room. It suddenly dawned on me that I’d never actually had Japanese food before and I started wondering if I’d like it…
There was much talking between the waiters and our guests. And before I’d finished looking at the menu, a grand platter arrived at the table with, what I can only describe as, an UBO (unidentified battered object). The whole table looked expectantly at my boss waiting for him to take a bite of this surprise delicacy, the both of us knowing that not eating it would have been a serious mark of disrespect ...The boss looked at me and said he could ‘unfortunately’ only eat Kosher food…And so, all eyes turned to me…Even Granny’s! I gulped and asked my boss what it exactly it would be trying...’some sort of sea food’ came the reply… I did my duty and took a polite bite.
It wasn’t until afterwards, I discovered that what I’d just eaten was the rare Japanese delicacy, ‘Fugu’ (a fish so poisonous and notoriously hard to prepare that it’s illegal to serve in most EU countries!! BECAUSE IT CAN KILL YOU) ...I contemplated running to the nearest hospital, but instead sat and smiled along wondering if this might be the END!
I do remember a very healthy bonus that year though...Thankful that I had survived!!
