Liverpool FC Forum

by **Reg** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 2:06 am

I'm off to Paraguay tomorrow morning for 3 days, back on friday night.

Managed to time it to watch Paraguay play Peru in the World Cup qualifiers tomorrow night. :buttrock

Saw the Argentina v's Uruguay game on sunday where 10 players (including Masher and Tevez) were booked.

Catch you later. :pirate

by **woof woof !** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:04 am

Christ you put in some air miles mate, got me thinking you're either a pilot or a drug mule

.

Have a good trip Reg.

by **Sabre** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 12:41 pm

Have fun reg!!

An Argentina-Uruguay game is a classic game and I don't rememer a smooth Argentina-Uruguay.

by **metalhead** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 7:13 pm

Have fun reg!

by **Judge** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 3:00 pm

woof woof ! wrote:Christ you put in some air miles mate, got me thinking you're either a pilot or a drug mule .

Have a good trip Reg.

drug mule

by **Toffeehater** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 5:21 pm

Have a good trip mate .

by **Bam** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 4:11 am

woof woof ! wrote:Christ you put in some air miles mate, got me thinking you're either a pilot or a drug mule .

Have a good trip Reg.

by **Reg** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:07 pm

Hi Lads, sorry for not replying to your comments I was too busy sh@gging y´know....

I´m a cotton trader in real life, I buy cotton (in bales) here in Brazil and export them worldwide but mainly to Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, China etc.. The Brazilian crop has grown greatly in the last 5-7 years so I am based down here to take advantages of opportunities etc.. and compliment the other cotton types we sell (West Africa, Central Asia, Greek, US, Indian etc..) its a very old Liverpool trade started to serve the Lancashire spinning industry 200 years ago with US cotton consigned to Liverpool docks where the mills came down, inspected the quality and bought ex the warehouse and took it back t´mill. As Lancashire declined the merchants had to either go international or out of business. Many went bust but Liverpool remained the centre of the cotton trading industry serving mills worldwide from all countries cotton is grown. I´ve been in the trade 20 years this year and have lived all over the world following the crops: 7 years in Brazil (two spells) 2 years in Uzbekistan, 9 months in Greece, Argentina, Turkmenistan, 5 years in Swtizerland etc.. as well as visiting so many way-out and whacky countries and regions to fill a scrap book. So many experiences and 'moments' to keep me in bar stories for life. The funny thing is, even as Liverpool declined as companies expanded and needed more working capital than a Liverpool company could raise, the scousers remain the best at the job. We are a small family of traders and experts and frequently end up competing for the same cotton from the same seller etc.. I remember one night arriving in Azerbaijan back in the early 90´s and slipping into a bar for a swift one before bed and seeing a familiar back of a head going into the gents. When he came out I kept down and as he walked past said matter of factly 'pint of the usual John...?' the guy nearly had a heart attack - we were both in the same town and same bar to buy the same cotton! That situation has repeated itself many times and we have close relationships despite being competitors as a lot of the places we go to are quite dangerous to say the least. I´ve had a lot of fun and I hope it continues, I´m married to an Italian girl with twin 6 year old boys, we met in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (she was there for 2 years working) then we moved to Switzerland and back to Brazil, 5 years ago. We have a business in Paraguay processing cotton and I go over there to check on the crop and cotton quality. We have a seed crushing plant (sunflower, soya, canola and seseme) producing oils and meal. I went over last week because one of the lads has resigned and I have taken over his role trading the oils and meal on a temporary basis - I go back again on monday for the week to get better aquainted. Not much else to add..... LFC is my sole link with home, usually I get back to the UK just once a year (made it to the PSV game) for the Liverpool Cotton Association dinner at the end of september - life is too short and there are too many places to see - have been all over south america from Tierra de Fuego in the south of Argentina to the north of Columbia - not many people would consider Medellin as the ideal business trip location but I´ve done it !!) and we tend to take our holidays going to weird and wonderful places locally like Machu Picchu in Peru, Patagonia, the Andies etc...)

Anyway, thats enough about me, me fingers are knacked.......

by **woof woof !** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:25 pm

Brilliant stuff Reg, but yer didn't have to take my "don't mind if you lie" comment so seriously. Great cover story mate but we all know you're really a drug mule.

Cheers Reg, if you're ever in London give us a bell and I'll buy you a pint, always a pleasure to drink with a fella with stories to tell.

by **Reg** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:27 pm

One pint? ......... I guess its a start........... :laugh:

by **Sabre** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:29 pm

That was a great post.

It's rare this days to see families sticking to the family business, people having really old expertise and tradition about something. Very nice post indeed.

Just curious, in which languages did you manage all these years in so different places?

by **Reg** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:24 pm

Thanks Sabes.....

I speak portuguese, port-enyol and when I was in Uzbek/Turkmenistan I understood russian fairly well and spoke it fairly badly.

My secret weapon is my wife, she speaks fluent Italian, english, russian, french, portuguese and spanish. With a wife like that, a man can be afford to be lazy... :;):

In fairness though after so many years of working with non-english speakers, interpreting body language is the best way to follow a conversation.

by **LFC2007** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:47 pm

This is Your life

BTW, whereabouts in Brazil do you live?

by **NANNY RED** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:22 am

Reg wrote:Thanks Sabes.....

I speak portuguese, port-enyol and when I was in Uzbek/Turkmenistan I understood russian fairly well and spoke it fairly badly.

My secret weapon is my wife, she speaks fluent Italian, english, russian, french, portuguese and spanish. With a wife like that, a man can be afford to be lazy...

In fairness though after so many years of working with non-english speakers, interpreting body language is the best way to follow a conversation.

Wow Reg amazing story done yourself proud there lad.

But can yeh speak scouse :laugh:

I think its brilliant when someone speaks more than one language though an lookin at how many you speak alot of respect from me there Reg. An what youve made of yourself in another part of the world .

by **Reg** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:44 am

Thanks, you're making me blush now folks.

I speak scouse Nan but it wears off after a few years away. My father was born and lived 29 years in Alwyn Street in the Dingle, near St Michaels in the Hamlet, saw out the war there with zee Girmans bombing his street. He played at the rugby club and opened the bowling at the cricket club on Aigbeth Road. A great man who give me a leg up in life. My twin 6 year olds have italian as their mother language, english with me and also speak portuguese - at that age they soak it up. I'm a very proud dad and feel thats the best start I can give them in life.

I live in Sao Paulo 9er, a big crowded, violent city of 18 million. Not the best place to live but I'm there for work not tourism.

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I'm off, i might be some time...

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