Tony Picano was born in very Pretty 17th Arrondissement of Paris and was raised by a very strict Dad who worked for the French Army in Morocco as Translator (16 languages and dialects) and special forces but was from Portuguese origins. He passed away in 2000 because he was physically too active and his heart failed before anything else.. His mum was the 11th daughter of 12 in a French/Italian family from Orleans area of France. She was very well educated as her mum, Tony's grand mother was a very popular Local School teacher all her life. Tony had a tough but good upbringing whith many principles to respect such as not drinking, smoking, lazying, not stealing etc...

Tony had a hard but great childhood with his Brother Philippe what was also had two personalities of being a Fury and a great lovely and intelligent man but died recently in France in January 2025. He was a living legend as martial Art champion which a slightly shady past. Tony's sister was very smart singing bird who could have easily won the Voice TV contest and who could read 2 books a day and learn new jobs or languages in no time. She has disappeared like tony's mum and cannot be reached or found, so Tony is the last of his Mohican tribe.

He enjoyed school and studies but not all teachers,  rather than subjects depending on wheter he could get on with the tutor or vice versa. In general he had an interest, still have an interest for French culture, Economy, Math, Music, Art and Sports with a later interest for languages and making/fixing things.

He passed a Business/Commerce Baccalaureat and successfully passed his master in Commerce and business at the IGS of Paris where he was exceptionally accepted as a license was required but did get on well with the interviwer who was the wife of the School headmaster. Tony had and still have a great presentation and conversational skills.

His first job was like working for a Film/Actor agency as his job was to convince all Paris Film production and distribution companies to stop working on Paper and instead use the very first desk computers and first accounting softwares ever created for them and so it was champagne and parties every Friday night and later during the weekend also meeting a few film celebrities and their agents.

Tony had to go to do his military compulsary time and decided to do a bit longer but earn double the salary as he simply wanted to be financially as independant as possible after those 2 years. He had a great time there as he was very interested in Sports and walking for days in forests where he was given a medal for his good merit as long distance fast walker.

While on leave during his Army time, while he was visiting his sister in Paris, he had to find any work to help her pay her rent and so he ended up digging scrap in Building cellars underground in 90% darkness and dust breathing where he found a mall box full or British sovereigns and 20 american gold 20 dollars all for a value of about £10 K and so helped his sister and bought his first camera and when he became very interested in Photography.

When his Army time ended and when he came back to Paris, as this was near Metz in France, he had the thought of doing what he enjoyed the most which was Walking and Drawing and in fact ended up with 3 jobs as a leaflet person walking all day where he would collect other companies flyers, catalog them to contact those businesses to re-design their flyers and take over the distribution employing others after a while. His business was booming and decided to grow to a small advertising business. He looked for advice, funding and partners but it is good to know that the French system is conservative and people do not take risks, so not like UK, US or Aus. So Tony was a bit stuck as he didn't see doing just that for the rest of his life. At weekends when the weather was OK he would spend his day in Montmartre drawing tourists was getting paid for that and was leaving in a residential hotel full of Old, sometime famous Artists where he learned a few things/techniques. This was a 2 stars hotel so full of character and great imperfections. He also ended up working at his local gym because of his interest in sports anatomy, therapy and was managing their promotion at the same time. 20 years later they had a dozen of locations in Paris and sold their business to retire for millions.

Tony had a girlfriend then who also was wondering what to do whith her life as working in Cinemas as Usher and being really smart and attractive. So they decided together to live their Dream together, to go and live somewhere else. Tony had heavilly become Buddhist (Japanese) then so he wanted to go and live there in Japan, she liked the idea too but her mum had health issues and could not go too far and so the best option was England. Tony spoke 10 words and she spoke 3 and so they took the big ferry across the seas with big suitcases on a beautiful sunny day, while singing and smiling away. They both had bough their mini dictionary that they carried everywhere from then.

Tony's life was to change completely and uterly forever as by making this decision he did and experinced what he could not have done in Paris as being French lost in a crowd of millions of other French people. He was then young, 24, fit, latino good looking and ready for the adventure.