Page 199 - harryDEC12_clean.iba

My mathematical horizon was limited to checking the correctness of the bill in the supermarket and to calculating the change before the checkout woman read the result on the cash register - which I took a certain pride in. From Hugh's explanations:
"Let us start simply: 52 x 11 = ??
"Take the number and divide it into two figures, 5 – 2, then take the cross sum of the original number and put that into the gap -
„5+2 = 7 – and see, from 5 – 2 we have 572. Voila, that sounds complicated, but it isn’t if you know that the individual operations always relate to the multiplication table.“
Once he had started he could not be stopped, and he said:
„Many experienced experts in calculating in the head multiply with the cross multiplication numbers with three digits very quickly. I’ll give you an example.
Example: 123*456 = 3*6 = 18, remember 1 2*6+3*5 + 1 = 28, remember 2 1*6+2*5+3*4 + 2 = 35, remember 3...“
"Stop Hugh, I can‘t follow you, not even with my notes.“
I said in desperation, and John said it was time to eat something sensible and drink a few glasses of wine. Maybe the fog would then clear up. Hugh was happy to agree. While we were eating Hugh emphasized what advantages a broker would have if he mastered the art of calculating in his head - always one step ahead. Competence proved. No doubt he was correct. But at this Lunch I was made privy to other confidential information, which exceeded my imagination:
For a huge Broking House trading in Reinsurance, it was not uncommon that they would be sitting on unallocated cash in the region of USD 100 Million at any one given time - he said - a nice buffer for the balance sheet I thought and then Hugh turned abruptly to me:
“You know Harry, we in the inner community, to which you now belong, take care of our people, in particular of our traveller - there is something, that we call our “ private health special care scheme”
He turned to John, looking for John for support, but received only a bright grin - “...well you know many of our boys come back from overseas rather worried about their health, from a venereal point of view...you know, all these exotic girls after a strenuous working day - give cause to concern and so we have a special service provided by a certain Dr. Lim in Harley Street - an expert in his field - you just go there and give him this card - he is under contract to the community”.
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