Fortune Cookie by Bryce Courtenay

Author:Bryce Courtenay
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780670074082
Publisher: Penguin Group Australia
Published: 2010-11-15T10:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

AFTER WE WON THE Singapore Tourist Promotion Board account, I couldn’t wait to have lunch with Elma Kelly – mostly, I admit, to bask in the glory of winning the account against her own agency and the other big outfits. Of course, I would be modest, call it luck, thank her for her congratulations and point out that these things, as she well knew, are often capricious decisions and that it had been our day, that’s all. But she’d know she’d been beaten fair and square, having expected, with her connections, to win. I admit it was all pretty pumped-up little-boy stuff but the ad business is very competitive and she was a formidable opponent. What with Sidney Wing’s opposition to the panels, I felt I was entitled to bask, although Elma deserved my thanks for recommending Mrs Sidebottom, who’d come up with the idea of the screens in the first place.

It was Elma’s turn to pay and since she was ‘dying for a curry’ and nothing else would do, she elected to go to the Tiffin Room at Raffles. In the taxi on the way, much to her amusement, I told her the story of the Sidebottom free-lunch scam.

Arriving at Raffles it was obvious that Elma was regarded as something akin to visiting royalty, and there was much hurrying and scurrying and best-tabling and napkin-flapping.

‘Champagne, my man!’ she boomed the moment we were seated. ‘The boy has excelled and must be duly rewarded.’

‘Elma, a cold beer will do nicely,’ I protested.

‘Nonsense, a fitting drink for a splendid win. Those government chappies are never easy and the minister is an old fuddy-duddy not known for bold decisions. We went conservative, unaware that they’d appointed Long Me Saw and Molly Ong to the board. Silly, we should have checked. Must remind myself to give someone in the office here a kick in the bottom. Those two certainly add some much needed pep.’

‘Bit of luck, really. We didn’t know either of them. I guess Long Me Saw has sat in on a few presentations in the movie business, but I tell you what, I was impressed with Molly Ong.’

‘Good gal, did a splendid job as Miss Singapore.’ The champagne arrived and Elma lifted her glass. ‘Here’s to the Three Wing Circus and its new creative ringmaster. You’ve certainly got your act together. Well done, Simon.’

We clinked our glasses. ‘Thanks, Elma, but I have to be honest. Sidney and Ronnie, and Johnny of course, tried their best to prevent the pitch we made. Sidney insisting it was all about influence – guanxi, I guess. He kicked up a terrible fuss about the cost of the moving photographic panels, which by the way were Mrs Sidebottom’s idea, so the real credit goes to her and of course to you for recommending her.’

‘Ah, the Baba, they need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new Singapore.’

‘Baba?’

‘Old Chinese families, the ruling class here in Singapore. They’re all interconnected and can’t get it into their

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