Top Gun revisited

Top Gun: Maverick is, after 36 years, the sequel to Top Gun. It’s just been premiered in the UK and will be released in the US later this month. No doubt there will be a surfeit of column issues comparing the two movies. That’s not for me.

I watched Top Gun on video in the mid 80s. It was a great movie with super music and I noted the reference in it to the US Navy’s objective of training ‘the best fighter pilots in the world’.

I was at the time responsible for one of Dow Chemicals’ speciality chemicals businesses with a dispersed team of 40 or 50 people in manufacturing, technical service and sales and we were just emerging from a period of poor performance which I’d inherited from my predecessor. We weren’t exactly mainstream Dow, that was occupied by plastics and bulk chemicals based businesses, which meant that there was a touch of the maverick about us and we were left to get on with doing whatever was necessary to make the business better.

We had a record and very profitable year in 1987 and I saw this reference to the ‘best fighter pilots’ and reckoned that there was a parallel in our sales team, we had the best sales people. I saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by sending every salesperson a cassette tape, yes it was that long ago, of the original soundtrack. I remember buying 10-15 copies at local music stores and putting the purchase on my expense account as ‘audio business aids’ or similar.

Bird number one was of course to motivate the sales people by boosting their egos, salespeople like that.

Salespeople of course didn’t just do selling, vitally important that it was. They also provided a ‘chauffeur service’ taking technical service people and their managers, including me, to visit prospects, customers and distributors. Much of the time on those journeys you listened to whatever music the salesperson had in the car. Giving them a copy of the Top Gun soundtrack meant that they would have at least one cassette that was worth listening to. Hence bird number 2 got killed!

Our success in 1987 continued into 1988 with monthly sales records and a mention in Dow’s annual report. Sadly I left the business mid 1988 but that’s another story.

Switzerland 40 years on

We lived in Switzerland in the 80s (and a couple of years either side). Clare and Charles were both born there and we bought a house. We had a good life but then the world changed and we moved on.

Remembering Asia’s airports in the 70s

My claim to be an old Asian hand springs from 1974-1979 when I lived first in Jakarta for two years and then Hong Kong. I spent a fair amount of time travelling around the region and got to know its airports which were very different from those you’d use nowadays.

5 highlights of 2021

It’s not been a great year. The Covid constraints limited what we might do but except for the lockdown of early in the year we’ve had enough freedom to get out and enjoy life in the UK and then I was able to visit Spain on business on November. Then the Omicron virus hit and rules have been tightened and we can expect more of the same at least for the start of 2022.

5 overnights in hospital

With the NHS under so much pressure I’ve been thinking about what I owe it. And before I get into that let’s be clear that it’s under pressure on two fronts. First is the obvious one of Covid and let’s all note the incredible debt we now owe to the people of the NHS which have worked extraordinarily hard. Johnson blusters about the parties in Downing Street and justifies them because everybody’s been working very hard without considering the NHS people who didn’t have any parties because they stuck to the rules.

I haven’t always voted

Many’s the time recently  when I’ve spoken to residents when I’ve been out canvassing that I’ve expressed disappoint ment when they’ve said they won’t be voting for anybody because they don’t vote.

Year 1 at Uni: 1966 and all that

1966: England won the World Cup and I went ‘up’ to Cambridge. I’d had the best part of a year out, nowadays it’s called a gap year, and I was going to be back in full time education again. It was a major discontinuity in my life. I wouldn’t say that I was well prepared but some how I got though this first year successfully.

Exam results remembered

It happens every year these days. Exam results are published, students go into their schools to pick up their envelopes and the TV cameras are on hand to capture the delight of these who’ve got what they need and/or exceeded their expectations. Some are interviewed, generally the better looking ones with a nod towards ethic diversity, then there are photographs of jumping with spontaneous joy. It’s all grist to the media mill but it hasn’t always been like that.

Letter to Kyoji

I’ve had an on/off relationship with Japan since the very first days of my working life but today it’s only continued through a Xmas card exchange with and a letter to Kyoji Ohtake.

Remembering Greece

There was a program on BBC2 last night about Crete, the Minoan civilisation and the archaeological site at Knossos and I thought ‘I’ve been there’.