Page 11 - Inform December 2019

Spotlight Feature Paul Fraser What do you like to do outside of work? I asked my partner this question and she said: “Watch films, eat good food, cook and watch sport and more sport”. I said: “Is that really what you think?” She said: “Well to be fair, you do run around doing lots of errands for your girlfriend too!” In addition to these more routine activities, we also love to travel and listen to live music. We went to John Legend at the O2 for my partner’s birthday and Squeeze at the Royal Albert Hall for mine. Both were brilliant! Where is your favourite place? How can you have just one? I have three children - Ellen, Esme and Joe - who are not really kids anymore. Joe, the youngest, is now 17. Anywhere with them is normally a favourite place. Essentially, being with people I love and having some free time to enjoy their company, is one of my favourite things to do. If I was to pick a city to do that in, it would have to be London. If you could change one thing in the industry what would it be? To enable our consumers to make choices which are better for the planet. I’d love to see the industry and Government come together to have a universal recycling scheme for the whole of the UK and a standard environmental ‘traffic light type’ scheme for the CO2 impact of goods. What is your favourite film and why? I’m a huge lover of film and there is a wide variety of films I recommend from the obviously brilliant Godfather, the quirky comic Withnail and I; most Richard Curtis films (with About Time top of that list) and the wonderful and harrowing Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful would be close, but my all-time Oscar goes to Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a heart-warming story (and reminder) of the most important thing in life - kindness to others. If you were allowed one dream perk what would it be? Free health check for everyone! What was your first ever job? When I was 14, I got a job working for a tourist gift shop. I worked on a stall outside the shop selling Blackpool Rock, ‘Kiss me Quick’ hats and a range of other tatty cheap gifts! I was paid 50p an hour and was ‘let go’ because the owner got his nephew to do it for free! I once had a summer job working as a waiter in the Wembley Hotel on the seafront before I left home for University. What is your motto in life? I drive my kids mad with mottos and quotes. I do love a quote! Yoda from Star Wars has some cracking ones including “Do or do not-there is no try” which I annoy them with. I can’t say that I have one motto in life and there are a number of maxims I use but I guess the one that I find helps me a lot is “Do what is right, not what’s easy”. 1 1 1 1