A Fork in the Road

For LL in the UK

Interesting isn't it that your life has changed by such a small increment and mine by so much more, since our time together. I know why yours hasn't changed.

Maybe you should know why mine changed so much.

First of all I should say I was very, very fond of you ... until I found out about your behaviour with that slip of the tongue you made at one of my properties in Florida. That was a fork in the road for me. Could I trust you? I believed not, given your history and so I decided to hedge my bets, as they say. Of course I continued to see you. Part of me mistakenly believed you might mend your ways, but you didn't.

It was also a fork in the road for you, although you didn't realize it. You chose your path and life. Later in 2006 you realized it with your remark about 'wrong decisions'. Too late, by then.

You found the flour man and not too much has happened since then. Living a mundane parochial life, interspersed with weekend visits over the border and vacations, generally in Spain, does not constitute a life, or indeed the life you might have enjoyed.

How did I arrive at where I am now?

I 'moved on' almost immediately after March 2004. As I said I had to hedge my bets. From then I started seeing other women, mainly from contact through 'our' website to start with, but not exclusively from there. I had been interested in photography from the sixties, as a teenager. I took quite a few back then and the girls I met allowed me to take some fairly intimate shots, as well as general photos. You will realize that interest and my ability to get the girls, back then, to allow such shots had and has not left me. A certain charm more than one has told me.

I won't dwell on the women I met after March 2004. I have covered that elsewhere. However, one particular lady, who I photographed extensively in 2004, gave me the idea of making a business of it. I hated being idle, in fact I never have been. It wasn't for the money. I had a six figure bank balance and a lot of investments, plus the properties you knew of ... and others you didn't.

One of the women I photographed referred me to a contact she had in London. That lady in turn recommended me to a friend and that in a nutshell is how I got started LL. It all flowed from there, because that last mentioned woman had connections, and those connections that I did shoots for, also had connections. Soon I found myself taking shots of some very attractive and wealthy women ( and many frustrated and bored ones!)

Geographically, I had most of Europe covered by early 2008, which is why you see such a wide range of locations in my other blogs. In the US it was the same, although I had a 90 day limitation for a while, but then I gained a homeowners visa and when Ash and I married I became a citizen. The photography business in the US took off  before I met Ash in Cambridge UK.

Talking of Cambridge, I guess you figured a while back I had a town house there...another property you knew nothing about. That sold for just under a half a million. I bought another place there which I still own, or rather one of my companies does.

Without revealing a lot more of my financial affairs then (or now), the guy you passed up on was a multi millionaire. You definitely did make the wrong decision, as you once put it, after we parted.

In 2005 I purchased my London apartment. I had quite a lively time living there! There were so many single women living in the area and working in the City, and a few married ones! I sold that after I met Ash and we bought the Knightsbridge home, which is where I stay while I'm in London.

In 2008 I made a move buying up foreclosed properties in the US in various States. Only good quality ones. That in itself turned out to be a very shrewd move on my part, when the market came back. In the meantime, I rented them out and the net income accrued very nicely. Using a basket of those properties as collateral, I then moved into the hotel business and also bought an apartment in New York to add to my home in Florida. The first hotel was, and still is in South Carolina. Others have been added since and, with Ash's assets in a similar sector, they are spread through most of the major US cities..

Meanwhile, back in the UK I sold the six houses, I mentioned many moons ago to you. They were on a small development in Norwich. That brought in about 2m GBP. From that I bought my place in Carcassonne, France. Meanwhile in Spain, I had already sold that shit hole of a place you chose and actually made about 30k profit - small change, but a profit is a profit.. I had other rental, or buy to let properties in the UK, too. Quite a few in fact. (You once made me laugh when you said I was after your house. If you only knew then. There was nothing further from my mind). At least I saw how the 'other half ' lived through my visits to you. The not so well off half. I decided I liked the way I lived better.

There was a lot more to Denia than you knew when you visited with me. I liked the properties away from the sea ,,. back in the hills behind the town, and bought one, which I still have, giving me unrestricted views of the Med. It's nice and private too. Very good for my photographic work😉. I also have interesting neighbours...

In early 2009 I met Ash at a business conference/lecture in Cambridge UK. In summer 2009 we married and for nearly nine years were very happy together. Sadly, Ash who was ten years my junior passed away early last year.

Not that I needed it, and it also came as something of a surprise, she bequeathed all her business interests to me, having made generous provision for her two sons Brad and Tom and 'our' seven grandchildren. My three, and her four. Something you have had trouble with.

Ash and I owned, and I know own, private property in various companies in which we were the sole shareholders 50/50. They include a home in Paris, another in Cannes, an apartment in Rome, Venice and my place in Sorrento, to name a few of the more prominent ones. Barcelona and Valencia, too. No longer a millionaire LL, but  a billionaire now.

The companies in the Group have wide ranging interests. It is a private (not quoted on the NYSE or Nasdaq) conglomerate for want of a better description - shale oil extraction, agriculture, hotels/leisure, real estate, technology to cover just a few areas.

That gives you a general view of how I arrived at where I am now. You once said I wouldn't sit still LL. Here's news for you I never have. I started way before your time, way, way before.

I have stepped back from the day to day running of my 'empire' and indulge myself with my many friends (and 'friends'), writing novels (very successfully under a pseudonym), taking part in a Miami based cookery program on TV for fun, and art, both on canvas and on computer.

Judging by social media, you are not blessed with many friends. Not surprising, is it. One of your few friends, no make that two, keep in touch with me still. They never approved of what you did behind my back. You'll never figure out which ones though. If they have kept the secret for fourteen years ...

Finally, the love of my life, my home and ranch in New Hampshire where Ash and I were at our happiest. We shared a love of business, horses and life. Unlike you I have been blessed with my two wives, both sadly now gone and also blessed by my many lady friends.

You did make the wrong choice With all due modesty on my part, you let the best guy slip through your fingers. I say that, having received so many compliments from other women over the last fifteen  years. Ash didn't make your mistake, but then she was an altogether different woman and way out of your league, LL, as was my first wife. I think I stepped in the gutter with you and made a mistake, despite being very fond of you....once.

You only knew what I wanted you to know about me. Even in my bereaved state, when we first met, I was careful. I was right wasn't I - you let me down within six months of our meeting. You thought you knew about my background, but in fact you knew nothing of my careers or training, and I'm not talking about my second career in banking.

I recall you telling me very early on that you couldn't tell me who you worked for because it was 'secret'. When you did tell me that is was for the 'collectors', I had to smile. Was that a limp attempt to add an air of mystery to your otherwise very ordinary background. It failed , as did you.

I worked for the Government too, in the Royal Navy, but I also was involved in what could be really termed work that was secret and required a certain...intelligence.. I'll leave you to figure that out, although I have given you clues in the past. All of which should tell you why I was way ahead of you in knowing what you were up to and, for myself,moving on ahead of you.

I'm in London until tomorrow then fly down to Carcassonne, but first I have another Red Sox game to see. I'll be moving around a bit over the next month or so in France and Italy. Somewhere I will return to New Hampshire to catch up on a few things and family etc.

What I have told you here is not exhaustive, or detailed, of course, but it may shed a little light on who I really am and remind you of what you lost, solely due to for want of a better word...your urges

Ciao