FINALLY, after being away for 9 years, first living in Laguna Hills, CA., then moving to China, I made it back to good old Hong Kong.
I was sitting at my desk in Hangzhou, China, where I was Director and General manager of the new World Ice Arena, when I get a call from Keith G. Kerr, my former boss at Swire. He was Chairman of Swire Properties for many years and was responsible for such projects as Pacific Place, Festival Walk, Citygate, etc., and to have him knocking on my door was awesome.
We met for coffee at the MIXC with Ricky Lui, another of the principals at his company, and discussed my joining The Development Studio as CEO of a new Division called Ice Rink Concepts. The financial arrangement was acceptable but I would need to be paying my own rent in Hong Kong. This is a huge consideration since cheapest rent for anything decent is around US$3000 a month.
Fortunately for me, my good friend, and 3 time Olympian, David Liu and his partner, Darren Olivero had recently bought a 2 bedroom penthouse at Island Place in North Point which they were willing to rent to me for HK$20,000, just short of US$3000 a month, so I took it. Only setback is that if they can sell the apartment, I will have to move out. So, I arranged to have all my furniture in Hangzhou (68 boxes) and sent down to Hong Kong. Took 3 weeks and everything arrived. Then a new problem. Not enough room for all my stuff so I had to give away all kinds of things from my big large 2 door refrigerator, the big freezer, all kinds of book shelves, one of my sofa's, lots of desks and cabinets, and even lots of my clothes. Having done that, however, I felt a lot lighter and was glad the stuff was gone.
The next huge problem was getting down to Shenzhen with my dog Kita. Everything in my life revolves around Kita. So the HR Manager of our company arranged for a police escort to help me get Kita onto the train down. No easy task since she had to ride in a bag thru the xray machine at the station. Two of my staff went with me on the train, Lion Zheng and Mark Zhang. We had a private room with 4 beds and the 18 hour trip was a breeze. We had plenty of food and Kita was quiet all the way. Didn't even need to use the bathroom. We arrived at 9am the next morning and I took Kita outside to do her thing in the park next to the Shenzhen station.
Then the hard part happened. I had to give Kita to Alex to take to a pet shop who would get her into Hong Kong for me. That made me very very nervous. After he gave her we went across the border into Hong Kong and had lunch. During lunch I got a call that Kita was in Kowloon Bay waiting to be picked up. Lion and I rushed there by taxi and got her, then went by taxi over to North Point and to the new apartment.
Its on the 36th floor and has an incredible view of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. Looks out towards the old Kai Tak Airport landing strip which runs right into the water. Its the same view I had before when I lived in Taikoo Shing from 1987 to 2002.
My furniture had not arrived yet but would do so in 2 or 3 days, so we sort of "camped out" until it all arrived. Thanks to David, who became my interior decorator, the apartment is finished and looks great.
The final problem was to find someone to look after Kita while I am at work. I have never allowed her to be left alone at home since I got her 4 years ago. So I hired a temporary daytime maid from Indonesia who comes each morning at 7am and goes home when I get back around 6pm. I also made arrangements to hire a live in houseboy assistant from Manila, whose name is Mariel Longakit. I've had many video chats online and he really seems like the right person for the job. Friendly, loves dogs, and is very responsible. So he will be coming in early July once all the government visa arrangements are done.
Now, its summer in Hong Kong and the weather is both hot and humid. Still, its a bit cooler than Hangzhou was last year when we hit 45c for a week in August and even now its 5c warmer there than here.
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