19 Jan 2003. The spectre of the Iraq invasion pending, I’d decided to sell up and travel a few months to see where that led me. I visited the boathouse to thank Peter and Linda for their Soul Path programme and to tell them of my plans, while they had news of their own…

At a Christmas fete two drinks marketing executives had visited their stall and expressed an interest in taking their kombucha to market. Thinking maybe I was in fact guided to the boathouse to help play a pivotal role in getting kombucha going in the UK - and confident it would be a safe investment due to the many health benefits and its potential to replace alcohol - I offered the start-up capital from my flat sale on the understanding they would pay me back within a year once “boathouse kombucha” was flying off the shelves, along with a 5% share of the business…

19 Mar. The day before I attended the anti war march the sale was completed, the loan paid into the new Gaia Brands Ltd company account run by the executives - who would market Peter and Linda’s kombucha and buy direct to order - and I took off for 5 months on a world trip that would see me meet with a lawyer in New York to apply for a Green Card and enrol in a “conscious” film-making course in Sydney.

Returning in September jaded and more lost then ever, a meeting at the boathouse was convened to update me on progress. I braced myself. The branding was in place (above) and a listing with wholesale co-operative Suma had been pursued, but the first run of Boathouse Kombucha made at Rocks Organics to Peter’s guidance had…hit the rocks and yet to be made.

Worse, the meeting was tense and the sniping and clashing of egos between the Zen Peter I’d known and the others signalled that to save my investment from frittering away I’d need to attend all meetings from now on and muck in wherever I could. Not what I’d envisaged, or desired...

I still had savings to support me and bide my time until things got moving, so I filled out my time lending my writing and editing skills to the voluntary charity sector. While unpaid that at least fulfilled my need to be doing purposeful work alongside pushing kombucha…

TBC