How I ended up buying stuff for rich Kuwaitis

Well ... I was temping, in Boston. I was sent on assignment to a place that was/is (not sure if it's still there) an investment company owned by a company in Kuwait.

I started out filling in for the assistant (read secretary) for the president of this Boston office while she was out having surgery. I did not make a good secretary, but this guy liked me. We got along really well, mostly because some of the first words he said to me were these: "Do you think you will stay here until (name of secretary on leave) comes back?" and my response was, "Yes, if I don't lose my mind first."

Since I did not make a good secretary but he liked me, I got this other position, which started out as part of his secretary's job but had escalated. I got to buy expensive stuff for whoever in the main office wanted something from here that they could not get there. Then I shipped it off to Kuwait, or wherever.

This stuff included, but was not limited to: gold Rolex watches, jet skis, snow mobiles (I know, there is no snow in Kuwait; those were for use somewhere else), sports cars, SUVs, a VW bug when it was first re-released, several luxury motor homes, 5 (used) Humvees, a (used) 90-ft. houseboat, and 2 (used) helicopters, one big and one small. When I left, we (I only assisted on this one since it involved a HUGE outlay of money and lawyers) had just bought and were refurbishing a (used) 727 jet.

Really, really wealthy people are kinda cheap - although I'm sure they all have at least one $7500 Birkin bag each.

Mostly, though, my days consisted of buying endless parts for the helicopters.

I won't even go into rotors that got damaged while the smaller bird was being loaded onto a plane in Germany (bad Lufthansa), the troubles I had with arranging for a houseboat to get down the Nile from the port to its destination, or how difficult it was to find the disco ball for the chairman's private, in-home club.

Oh! And I forgot about the special (sand) erosion prevention system. And you thought I didn't know what I was talking about vis-a-vis erosion control. Actually, I had forgot all about that until just now ...

When it got to the point where I was buying ... ummm ... stuff I wasn't that comfortable buying, I exited, stage left.