Monday 24 February 2025

The University of the Third Age meeting report

From Barrow to Baghdad

Speaker: Philip Caine

The guest speaker at the March 2025 meeting of u3a Todmorden was Philip Caine, his second visit to us, with 'From Barrow to Baghdad'.

Philip's working life began in the hotel business, beginning a career that spanned over thirty years, and across three continents.  His father thought that Philip would start work in the local shipyard, but Philip had other ideas and opted for a career in the hotel industry – having worked at a hotel for 6 months before leaving school. He wanted to work as a chef, which he did for a couple of years at a hotel in Bowness, before moving to other hotels.

Philip said it wasn't so much the preparation of food that interested him, but more the 'buzz' of busy kitchens. His 'tour' of these hotels included the Ritz in London, and a hotel in Paris. Returning to Barrow to take up a position of head chef, he met and married Sandra.

Some years later Sandra asked if Philip wanted to be a chef all his life, and suggested he move to hotel management. He followed this suggestion and later became 'headhunted' to manage a hotel in Scotland. Back to Barrow three years later, where a friend, and entrepreneur, was building hotels. This led to a busy time for Philip, being away from home a lot and working many hours, before Sandra had another question. Was he going to work in hotels for the rest of his life?

She mentioned oil rigs in the North Sea, and vacancies for chefs on them. Philip went to the labour exchange to find out more about this, and was asked if he could speak French? There were vacancies on rigs off Aberdeen – two weeks on and two weeks off. Philip wasn't keen at first, but his wife pointed out that he would see the family much more often.

Philip was flown out to the rigs on a helicopter for a two week stint. He started on nights, and cooked meals for French and Scottish workers – the experience in Paris paying off. Back home to report back to Sandra, who was keen for him to take the job – they would actually see each other more often.

Back to the rigs for a couple of trips working nights, before taking up day duties and a year or two later becoming a head chef, and later a chef manager – running the catering of all the rigs. More time passed, and he started to work for BP, in the Fortes area as general manager, before more promotion within the company on a number of aspects. Philip worked for BP for 17 years and, this time, asked himself if he wanted to continue with oil rigs – and if it was a job for a younger man?

A friend of his had a recruitment agency for expats working abroad on construction and infrastructure projects, so Philip made enquiries with a friend, who told him about a contract to build a camp for 500 people in the oilfields of Algeria. Philip had no experience of building such camps but was good at managing people – workers, supplies and logistics. Another factor was the tax-free salary that was on offer. He started the job, and a year later got another call from his friend, to say the clients were very satisfied with his efforts and results.

Philip was offered a second, similar project in the jungles of Nigeria. This would be a base for French, American and British expats. He took the job, alternating between the two projects – with more money and time off.

Into the early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union and another request for Philip's services. One of the new states, Kazakhstan, had engaged the American company Chevron to exploit the Karachaganak gas field in their territory. A Chevron rep rang Philip and provided further details – accommodation needed for two thousand American expats, including swimming pools, a gym and even a three-hole golf course in the middle of the base, and then someone to run, and manage the base. Philip got the job and became involved with the running of the accommodation including food supply.

Fruit and vegetables were available nearby, but meat products had to be sourced from inside Russia. The meat went missing on the way back, and the drivers blamed bandits on the roads. Philip discussed this with the governor of the local area, a man called Alexi, resulting in an airfield being made which solved the problem. Alexi was actually a KGB Colonel and asked Philip to have a look at a single storey building in the town. Alexi planned to turn it into a discotheque for the expats and friendly locals to use. Philip, and the tradesmen he organised, carried out the plans and the new nightspot was up and running – Alexi had persuaded Philip to run and manage the disco, which was full every night.

While home on leave a year or so afterwards, Philip discussed an idea with the friend and colleague who had played a big part in his success so far. The idea was to go into partnership and build a hotel, similar to a Travelodge or Premier Inn in Kazakhstan, on land that Alexi would source for them. After some research and planning, they resigned from the company they worked for and formed their own business. They both invested their wealth into the new company, after selling some of their assets, including a house, and maxing out credit cards. They obtained a loan from a Khazak bank of two and half million US dollars and intended to build the hotel, manage and run it for a couple of years, then sell it on for around four million dollars each.

Unfortunately, the Khazak bank that provided the loan obtained the money from the American Bank of Texas. This bank was part owned by Enron - the bank that failed spectacularly at the end of 2001. The effects of this for Philip was losing all the money he had invested; plus all the assets he held – and in debt for a quarter of a million US dollars.

Sandra took the news much better than expected, reminding her husband that he'd worked hard throughout, mainly with great success and that they could, in time, get back on their feet again. And they did – Philip got another job in 2003, sorting out staffing problems in Baghdad. The Indian workers on a US army base had to travel by road to Dubai, a two day journey, to fly home on leave. The other shift were on the way back to the base by the same route. This led, on occasion, to no workers at all in the camps which caused problems. Philip organised a shuttle service, by air, to Dubai and back - courtesy of a KGB colonel he knew! Philip continued to work in that area until 2014, until ISIS came on the scene.

He subsequently took up writing fiction and set up his own company to try and get books from new authors into shops, as well as becoming a u3a member.

His talk ended, possibly leaving the audience a little tired - but very appreciative of an absorbing, and excellent, 45 minutes - exactly.

Not yet a member? We're always delighted to welcome new members. Contact details: website at www.u3atod.org.uk or email at info@u3atod.org.uk.

Many thanks to Colin Sanson for this report

 

Previous U3A reports on the HebWeb - click here