Suitable positions were only advertised in the main Perth newspaper every Saturday. Over the first three months of 1988, I applied for a few, without success. Tim and I loved living in Perth. We loved our house and didn’t want to leave, so I resisted the temptation to look in the papers from other parts of Australia. Then, in early April, an employment consultant from another firm of Chartered Accountants advertised the position of Chief Accountant for a chain of men’s clothing stores. That would be different, I thought, so I applied.
“You’re too good for this job,” the consultant said after he had read my resume and we had spoken for ten minutes. “Anyway, only their debtors, creditors, stock, and payroll are computerized. The computerization of their General ledger isn’t budgeted for until 1992.” He continued. “But don’t worry, I’ll give you a call as soon as something more suitable comes up.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I shook his hand while thinking, I bet that’s what you say to all the applicants who you don’t think are good enough.
To say I was amazed when the phone rang in my office about three weeks later, and I heard the consultant’s voice on the other end of the line, would be an understatement. “Hi Phil, how does another spell in P.N.G. sound?” He asked.
“No way,” I replied. “My wife and I want to stay in Perth. But, to satisfy my curiosity, where about in Papua New Guinea are you talking about?”
“Actually, the job’s in Rabaul.”
“Rabaul,” I nearly shouted. Hasn’t the volcano erupted yet? When I was in Port Moresby in 1984, it was expected to blow any time.”
“Well, it didn’t quite manage it,” I was told. “It’s calming down again now. Another chance of an eruption isn’t expected for at least 25 years. The Managing Director of the company is in Sydney at the moment and he is flying over especially to see you tomorrow, so please turn up the day after, even if it’s just to make him think that his trip wasn’t entirely wasted.”
“What does his company do?” I asked.
“It manages several cocoa plantations.”
“Cocoa, you mean the stuff that old women drink before going to bed at night to help them to sleep? There can’t be much of a market for that.”
Well, actually, cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate,” the consultant replied. “Does that change your perception of its commercial viability?”
“Well, that just goes to show how good my understanding of agriculture is, and tropical agriculture in particular. But okay, if this guy is coming all the way from Sydney, just to see me, I suppose I’d better have the courtesy to turn up. What time do you want me to show?”
I didn’t even tell Tim that I was going for an interview for a job back in P.N.G. As I was so sure that I would turn down the position, I was very relaxed when I turned up at the nominated time two days after the consultant’s phone call. From the very beginning, Roger Gillbanks M.B.E., who had been honored by the Queen, and I got on very well indeed. We remained close friends until his death at the age of 88 in 2021.
I explained to Roger that my wife was very happy living in Perth, and I feared that she would be unhappy at the thought of leaving to return to Papua New Guinea. After confirming that I could drive, and had a car, he suggested that the three of us meet for a meal that evening in a village in the hills to the East of Perth, where his home was.
“So you didn’t fly from Sydney solely to interview me?” I asked.
“My goodness no,” he replied. “Although at the moment, Ann, my wife, is back in Rabaul, our main house is here, not far from Perth. We have grown-up sons and a daughter living there, and it has been a while since I’ve seen them, so that was the main reason for coming over. It’s just a coincidence that I need an accountant and the consultant here, whom I’ve used before, informed me that I may be interested in you. It’s all worked out very well.”
Shit, I thought. I’ve been duped again.
After I went home and talked Tim into getting dressed up to go out for dinner with a very important person, we drove into the hills and found Roger’s house without too much difficulty. Then, with Roger in the car, he directed us to a small local Chinese restaurant, which we discovered was B.Y.O. only. “B.Y.O.” is an Australian term that means “Bring Your Own”. A B.Y.O. restaurant is not licensed to sell alcohol, but it is allowed to charge a small fee to open bottles that customers have bought elsewhere. As I was driving, I went out to find a shop where I could buy a bottle of chilled white wine to take back to the restaurant. I was worried that I’d find Tim and Roger sitting in silence, but Tim could speak a little Malay, and Roger had lived in Malaysia for many years, and I returned to find them chatting away quite happily, if a little stiltedly, in Malay.
It was a lovely meal washed down with some nice wine, of which Tim had her fair share, and, by the time we had finished, a deal had been struck. Tim, I, and our little dog, “Lucky” would soon be on our way to Rabaul, to start the next stage of our exciting lives.
Okay, all you fellow budding affiliate marketers. What are you going to learn from today’s story? You may be thinking that I was going against advice I have given you in the past, that I was jumping from platform to platform too quickly, without giving each one sufficient time to fully satisfy my life’s desires. I would argue against that by saying that my move back to Rabaul was more like moving to a more advanced level within the same platform. One example would be, instead of restricting myself to text and image-based adverts on Facebook, I would be using videos in some of my content.
I was still going to be an accountant using computers, as Rodger wanted me to improve his current computerized system, but, on top of that, I was going to have the added responsibility of being the Finance Director and Secretary of his company as well. So I was not starting from scratch, as many marketers who jump from platform to platform do each time they jump. Instead, I was increasing my current range of experience and knowledge by adding further skills I would have to acquire in the future.
Cheers
Phil