None of the above is true. But you just can’t help yourself. When you meet Hilary, before she even so much as utters a word, her eyes are sparkling with laughter. Our first question to her was “So Hilary Stout? Decided to live up to your name?” (She works at the Phoenix Beverages Group.) The answer was laughter. Of the contagious type. She is about the nicest, warmest, most down to earth person you could meet. And she talks. And fast. And she laughs a lot. And she jokes…

After a lull in the conversation (there wasn’t much), I decided to ask a routine question. “Do you have many friends here?” Hilary looked at me with a serious expression on her face. I just happened to miss the eyes; “Oh no, I don’t have any friends,” she replied. For a split second, I didn’t know what to say, I mean, what do you say? Then she burst out laughing, “Of course, it’s great here!”

Hilary Stout was born in Leeds, grew up in Glasgow and, when she finished university, she didn’t have a clue as to what she was going to do with her life. So, she decided to go and work abroad. “I didn’t care where I was going as long as they spoke English, French or Spanish there!”

She was hired by Guiness when, in a pub with people from the company, she started advising them on ways to market their product…

While on one of her numerous assignments in Ghana, she met this dashing pilot. They went out, got engaged and he announced that he had got a job with Air Mauritius! Most women would have been devastated by the announcement that their hubby was to be posted so far away from them. Not so Hilary Stout. She contacted her head office and announced that she was quitting unless, of course, they had a job for her in Mauritius… She was joking. The Guiness people didn’t think so; “Actually, they said, we do need somebody out there…” I’ll let you guess what Hilary’s reaction was…

So, here she is, in “this lovely place, so green, with clear turquoise water and blue sky”, with her husband and she’s having a ball, as usual. “I believe in working hard and playing hard,” she says seriously. Hilary goes through life with rose-tinted glasses and the result is as pleasant as a breath of fresh air in stuffy, hot weather. She doesn’t think too much about what tomorrow has in store for her. What does it matter after all when you know what you ultimately want from life?

And this Hilarycertainly does. “I am going to live somewhere in South America. I don’t know when or where but I know it will happen!” Can you guess why she’s so adamant about going there? I’ll give you a hint… work hard, play hard…

That laughter again. “Those people have the right attitude to life…” says Mrs Stout…