Billionaire Victor Kiam was booked to present me with a £10,000 cheque and the title, ‘International Inventor of the Year 1998’ when I won that international event but I melted away into the crowds at the exhibition finale when I saw him, his minders and the show officials boring down on my own stand at that event.

I ‘ran away’ and hid myself in the cafe, avoiding all the press and the organisors, settling in the far corner of the coffee shop at a table hidden by partitions in that room contently drawing on a Benson and Hedges cigarette. 🙂

Why? Because, I reasoned, how cynical it was that the man whose famous international slogan was “I loved the company so much, I bought it!” (Referring to the billion dollar Remington Razor company he purchased – with a mere chequebook, not with passion, blood, sweat and tears), … wanted to shake my hand, share MY limelight and pat me on the back for being ‘a genius’, despite him (or his businessman kind) not being there willing to back my venture in the early days while we , (Jackie, my ex and I), sacrificed several years of our lives getting in debt to file patents across the world, set up an R & D facility, court the press, raise big money and actually create the tooling and the products I, (single handidly), eventually brought to market.

“No effing good you turning up now, mate”, I thought bitterly. “WHERE WERE YOU and your kind on the long, lonely financial and emotional path I had to tread alone to even get to winning International inventor of the Year?