The horse, Tempest, is a five-year old Arabian whose name matches his disposition. His job, as he sees it, is to unseat the rider who is trying to line him up with the seven other horses waiting for the starter`s pistol on the track at Tolly Gunge. The young Englishwoman in the green and white silks who sits astride his back has a determination equal to his own, but he bucks and spins to the left and his rider is airborne, landing ignominiously on the grass. She gets up, hitches up her jodhpurs and climbs back on the horse. Three times they play this game until he finally decides that she is worthy and allows her to ride him to the line, waiting for the gun.

The girl is twenty four - her name is Angela. She has recently qualified as a mid-wife and never expected to be a jockey, riding for the money in the flat track races at Tolly Gunge, Calcutta, India. But it has become apparent that where Angela James is concerned, life seeks her out. Angela emigrated from England to Canada with her family when she was seventeen, and obtained her nursing degree in Vancouver. An interest in working more directly with people outside the hospital environment encouraged her to return to England where she qualified and practiced as a mid-wife, and subsequent to her adventures with Tempest, attended further studies in tropical medicine.

Angela, impressed by the work of Mother Theresa, found gratification in delivering babies in some of the poorer areas of London, but fate had something else in store for the lively young woman from Southhampton.
Another passion, antique furniture, and a desire to rejoin her family in Canada opened the door to her future. She began attending auctions, where she would buy container loads of antiques, and ship them to Canada for sale from a store on the corner of West 10th Ave and Alma Street, in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver. She has been a fixture in Kitsilano for the past eighteen years.

About eight years ago, the company evolved into the manufacture of antique replicas and custom furniture.
She recently re-located her workshop to and old boatworks in Southlands on the banks of the Fraser River in order to follow her passion, along with physical fitness and classical music (she is a marathon runner and cellist). Her customers know her for the uniqueness of her products, her service, and her integrity.

The hot Calcutta air is split by the report of the starter`s pistol. Muscle, bone and sinew explode as the horses break from the starting line, pounding down the track toward the finish. The jockey`s colours flash by the stands full of people betting wildly on the outcome. Suddenly, a big chestnut Arabian spins to the side and hammers on the brakes. The rider, a young Englishwoman in green and white silks flies through the air and crashes into the dirt. She picks herself up, beats the dust from her clothes, turns to the crowd and flashes a smile that lights up the world and will become famous in a little furniture store a world away on the corner of 10th and Alma in Vancouver, Canada. She is smiling because life is so compelling - and because she knows she will be on that damn horse again tomorrow!