Money Money Money
Without Prejudice
In the mid eighties it was like we had a licence to print money. I had left Bob in 1983, for another man, after I had been to the UK with his mother. I had met a man over there, an old school friend nicknamed Cuckoo or Dave, Dave was a huge man 6'6" and a massive frame, and loved a drink. He was the first man that said it was not OK for my husband to be violent to me and I grew to adore him.I'll write a story of him later, but for that time the most important thing was the girls. I returned to Bob after he took Yvette and wouldn't allow me contact with her. She was 12. After my return all we did was work and work and work. We didn't spend one school holiday with the girls for a year. Heads down and bums up and we made money, hand over fist.
I was the brains and Bob was the brawn. he had bought a chain wire mesh machine from Japan and it was the size of a truck. Chain wire from coils was fed in to the machine and came out linked. It was like a giant knitting machine. Bob would run it 24 hours around the clock and when I would take him something to eat he would say that every time the machine clicked over it was a $1.00. I did all the accounts, the tax, the books, the negotiation with suppliers, debt collection and Bob used me to talk to the subbies about their pays or concerns as he was in his own words "not a people person"
We had a great time, shared the same goal, making money and got on with it. Bob was a fearless business man and took no bullshit. One hapless customer asked us to put the cheapest fencing, farm fencing, at his property in Mooroolbark. He had expensive horses he had to fence in and at that time it was mid winter and we needed work for the "boys". So Bob sent up the workers to erect this fence, the man wasn't home. He was a civil servant. The fence was erected and we awaited payment. Instead we got a 3 page letter from the Man, Bob opened it, looked at it and said,
"We're not getting paid"
When I asked why, Bob replied.
"This guy is a pen pusher, who sits in his office and writes this shit and has time to list complaints about the work, like there was an empty concrete bag left on site", the site being an open paddock.
"He will write to us back and forth and at the end of it, we are not going to get paid."
He disappeared into the factory and came back rubbing his hand in glee.
He had sent the boys back to the site and they cut the entire fence down and brought the entire thing back to the factory.
The man rang that night,
"Where's my fence?", he asked
"What fence?", Bob said and hung up on him.
Another time he did the same to a man at Mount Eliza who didn't pay for his tennis Fence and Bob sent the "boys" back down and they cut the whole thing off at the base and brought it back. Bob reasoned that we at least had the cost of the material back. he didn't care about having to pay the boys for their time, the satisfaction of those silly customers coming home and finding the fence gone was enough to put a smile on Bob's face for days.He was a cowboy all right, or Ned Kelly, anyway !
Once we had money Bob went nuts with it. He put in an inground swimming pool and decked out the double car brick garage with wood lined walls, a sauna and a spa, shower, toilet, handbasin and Deb ended up claiming it as hers. We heated the pool, solar and gas, and we entered in to the busiest times of our lives.
We ate, slept, talked and dreamed work. Bob had so much money, he would haul it out of his safe and show people, wads of it all bundled up. Then we would get nothing, none of it. He was tight, this husband of mine and if I was upset he would buy me something. Makeup, clothes, dishwashers, dryers, he had a great eye for beautiful things and good taste for a Man.He bought all my stuff, I found the clothes were a bit Nannyish for me, knitted Cardigan and Knitted skirt which I took back and swapped.
I became his right hand person, he would call me wherever I was, hairdressers, doctors, it always seemed like he was tracking me down and he would have a zillion problems. Once we solved one there were another twenty coming along. And the girls and I felt like we had to help.
His voice was booming and forever angry and he could rant for hours, on and on and on. He would get me to do the sackings, as he otherwise might lose his temper,
"Pay em up and Piss em off"
was one of his favourite sayings to me,
he would also make me go see the Bank Manager, who was a sleaze, wear a vee neck jumper, showing my cleavage and get more money on the overdraft.
He began to gamble, heavily. We flew to Hobart and Launceston and Jupiters on the Gold Coast, one time he lost $10,000, just like that, on the first day of our Gold Coast Family holiday. We felt sick, all of us. And he took it out on all of us, making us very angry with him
Money seemed to do something to Bob, give him a sense of power and status and he used it ruthlessly. There wasn't one ex employee that was happy. We had court cases coming out of our ears. And Bob became famous for taking people to court, no matter what the cost. He bought a Ferrari, red, started dyeing his hair and wearing tight acid wash jeans. I caught him out with a bird once and the next thing she was working in the office.
I worked for him full time and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday I worked at Brashs Southland and then Chadstone. He had rung me to see where I was and I just had this sixth sense where he would be. So after work I drove to a bar in Dandenong and caught him with his arm around a young blonde which he dropped when he saw me.
He pulled me aside and said he wanted to take a break from the marriage. So soon! That night, and his mate was with him, looking sheepish. So I just ignored him and went home and when he didn't come home went to Fosters in Dandenong, the kiddy club, and his car was parked outside. So walked in same scenario, so this time I went up and smacked the glass out of his hand. Same blonde turning away.
He grabbed me by the arm and this time I knew I was really going to get it. He grabbed my elbow and frog marched me outside, always had to be outside so no one else could see, he punched me in the head and my glasses flew off and all I said to him, was
"Don't break my glasses or I won't be able to drive home"
He was highly promiscuous, the women in the Neighbourhood facing me down with an intervention, he had been seen with young girls at the Local Pub and was known to be taking them home. I didn't care. I really didn't.
He ramraided every emotion or sense of feeling for others. He was probably already a "CEO Psychopath" but money and power was making him worse
Love Janette
In the mid eighties it was like we had a licence to print money. I had left Bob in 1983, for another man, after I had been to the UK with his mother. I had met a man over there, an old school friend nicknamed Cuckoo or Dave, Dave was a huge man 6'6" and a massive frame, and loved a drink. He was the first man that said it was not OK for my husband to be violent to me and I grew to adore him.I'll write a story of him later, but for that time the most important thing was the girls. I returned to Bob after he took Yvette and wouldn't allow me contact with her. She was 12. After my return all we did was work and work and work. We didn't spend one school holiday with the girls for a year. Heads down and bums up and we made money, hand over fist.
I was the brains and Bob was the brawn. he had bought a chain wire mesh machine from Japan and it was the size of a truck. Chain wire from coils was fed in to the machine and came out linked. It was like a giant knitting machine. Bob would run it 24 hours around the clock and when I would take him something to eat he would say that every time the machine clicked over it was a $1.00. I did all the accounts, the tax, the books, the negotiation with suppliers, debt collection and Bob used me to talk to the subbies about their pays or concerns as he was in his own words "not a people person"
We had a great time, shared the same goal, making money and got on with it. Bob was a fearless business man and took no bullshit. One hapless customer asked us to put the cheapest fencing, farm fencing, at his property in Mooroolbark. He had expensive horses he had to fence in and at that time it was mid winter and we needed work for the "boys". So Bob sent up the workers to erect this fence, the man wasn't home. He was a civil servant. The fence was erected and we awaited payment. Instead we got a 3 page letter from the Man, Bob opened it, looked at it and said,
"We're not getting paid"
When I asked why, Bob replied.
"This guy is a pen pusher, who sits in his office and writes this shit and has time to list complaints about the work, like there was an empty concrete bag left on site", the site being an open paddock.
"He will write to us back and forth and at the end of it, we are not going to get paid."
He disappeared into the factory and came back rubbing his hand in glee.
He had sent the boys back to the site and they cut the entire fence down and brought the entire thing back to the factory.
The man rang that night,
"Where's my fence?", he asked
"What fence?", Bob said and hung up on him.
Another time he did the same to a man at Mount Eliza who didn't pay for his tennis Fence and Bob sent the "boys" back down and they cut the whole thing off at the base and brought it back. Bob reasoned that we at least had the cost of the material back. he didn't care about having to pay the boys for their time, the satisfaction of those silly customers coming home and finding the fence gone was enough to put a smile on Bob's face for days.He was a cowboy all right, or Ned Kelly, anyway !
Once we had money Bob went nuts with it. He put in an inground swimming pool and decked out the double car brick garage with wood lined walls, a sauna and a spa, shower, toilet, handbasin and Deb ended up claiming it as hers. We heated the pool, solar and gas, and we entered in to the busiest times of our lives.
We ate, slept, talked and dreamed work. Bob had so much money, he would haul it out of his safe and show people, wads of it all bundled up. Then we would get nothing, none of it. He was tight, this husband of mine and if I was upset he would buy me something. Makeup, clothes, dishwashers, dryers, he had a great eye for beautiful things and good taste for a Man.He bought all my stuff, I found the clothes were a bit Nannyish for me, knitted Cardigan and Knitted skirt which I took back and swapped.
I became his right hand person, he would call me wherever I was, hairdressers, doctors, it always seemed like he was tracking me down and he would have a zillion problems. Once we solved one there were another twenty coming along. And the girls and I felt like we had to help.
His voice was booming and forever angry and he could rant for hours, on and on and on. He would get me to do the sackings, as he otherwise might lose his temper,
"Pay em up and Piss em off"
was one of his favourite sayings to me,
he would also make me go see the Bank Manager, who was a sleaze, wear a vee neck jumper, showing my cleavage and get more money on the overdraft.
He began to gamble, heavily. We flew to Hobart and Launceston and Jupiters on the Gold Coast, one time he lost $10,000, just like that, on the first day of our Gold Coast Family holiday. We felt sick, all of us. And he took it out on all of us, making us very angry with him
Money seemed to do something to Bob, give him a sense of power and status and he used it ruthlessly. There wasn't one ex employee that was happy. We had court cases coming out of our ears. And Bob became famous for taking people to court, no matter what the cost. He bought a Ferrari, red, started dyeing his hair and wearing tight acid wash jeans. I caught him out with a bird once and the next thing she was working in the office.
I worked for him full time and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday I worked at Brashs Southland and then Chadstone. He had rung me to see where I was and I just had this sixth sense where he would be. So after work I drove to a bar in Dandenong and caught him with his arm around a young blonde which he dropped when he saw me.
He pulled me aside and said he wanted to take a break from the marriage. So soon! That night, and his mate was with him, looking sheepish. So I just ignored him and went home and when he didn't come home went to Fosters in Dandenong, the kiddy club, and his car was parked outside. So walked in same scenario, so this time I went up and smacked the glass out of his hand. Same blonde turning away.
He grabbed me by the arm and this time I knew I was really going to get it. He grabbed my elbow and frog marched me outside, always had to be outside so no one else could see, he punched me in the head and my glasses flew off and all I said to him, was
"Don't break my glasses or I won't be able to drive home"
He was highly promiscuous, the women in the Neighbourhood facing me down with an intervention, he had been seen with young girls at the Local Pub and was known to be taking them home. I didn't care. I really didn't.
He ramraided every emotion or sense of feeling for others. He was probably already a "CEO Psychopath" but money and power was making him worse
Love Janette
