Back in 2001 I had an interview with Investors In People as some sort of webby person. Amazing employer, by the way, they really seemed to practice what they preached. Anyway, there I was in London. I’d finished my interview, I think I’d done a spot of shopping, and was sitting in a Cafe Nero in Soho before meeting up with my then lovely fiancee (now lovely wife). I was of course substantially younger then, and as I had an interview, looked pretty damn smart.
So, sitting in the coffee shop, watching people go by. A man sits next to me, after struggling a little with the two mops he has. He swears about them “It’s <something I can’t remember> without these two fucking mops”, and has what I recall to be a slightly clipped Australian accent. We converse, and somehow (possibly following on from talking about my interview?), the conversation turns to web pages and sites. He reveals that the he makes serious money from the web. How? Porn. He runs a couple of porn sites and has the money routed through the US. In the end I have to leave to meet my fiancee, and he wishes me the best of luck.
Questions:
- I’ve always suspected he was trying to pick me up. Is this vanity, suspicion, or a good bet?
- Why do I think the sites were gay, I’m not sure he said they were? Is it because of the location and my thoughts about his motives?
- When he wished me luck, I believe it was actually about my fiancee. Is this likely to be true? Why would he? Did he think I was making her up to get away?
If he had been trying to pick me up, it wouldn’t have been the first time… that happened on my 21st birthday, but is a completely different story and will come later…