There he sat, his eyes still glued to the boring bloody audit files, unmoved, while his hand dropped to the left and brought a Tupperware butty box out of his briefcase. You bugger David, I will never forgive you for that. And then there was Vin Staniforth. What a legend he was/is. He came to the firm as the marketing guy and we hit it off immediately – probably because he wasn’t actually an accountant. With completely in tune senses of humour, we had a ball and I was completely in awe of his ability to draw brilliant cartoons in just seconds. It was made all the more fascinating for me as he was left-handed. We discussed loads of ideas of things we could do together as a business. I think the last one was greetings cards and we had some great ideas, even though I say so myself. I remember we were creating one series of cards where we examined a theme of how small changes or misunderstandings in history could have changed so much had they gone a different way. I had been hoping early on in this book exercise that he would be able to illustrate this book. He had emigrated to the US after leaving EY and I still wonder whether it was to get away from me and our brilliant ideas, so I was then concerned that he actually wouldn’t want to do any of his super illustrations as it would bring all those memories back. Vin had already done a few Christmas cards for businesses and they were so funny, and we could have been the new Moonpig many moons before them. Oh, I’ve just remembered a few others – Graham Bond, another great member of our football team, and now a top partner at RSM; and what about Don Bailey, the Mort, Dave Moore, Perry Christian, Carey Smith, Janice Pike, Linda Butler, Brian Watson and oh no, I’ve just done what I said I wouldn’t. The more I remember, the more I’m going to get into trouble with those I don’t mention, so I’ll stop there, as I can always mention them in the next book. Let me know if I’ve not mentioned you. So, what would I say about accountancy? If anyone out there is considering a career in accountancy, just do it. If it turns out to be boring like you might fear, then you might turn out to be the most interesting person there – so that’s not a bad outcome.
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