Up close and personal in travel retail
All of us in travel retail have had these moments of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Not only would a Heathrow transit mean 28 hours or so of flying plus transit time from Mumbai to Hong Kong, but I’d actually not be back in time for my subsequent flight to Hainan.
In family terms, the Ahujas also put the worst of times to the best of use, transforming the family ranch with astounding alacrity and vision into the outstanding facility it is today.
Later that day I attended the K Hospitality and TFS annual party, a fabulously fun occasion. Asked by Sunil to say a few words, I took the audience back all those 5,806 nights to the TFS launch and summed up the extraordinary narrative since. What a journey this has been.
Vivek told me he’s been reading The Moodie Davitt Report every day since he started in the business a decade or so ago, catching up with brand launches, product trends and, yes, my Blog.
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see/Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be/Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails/Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales
To the non-Kiwi ear (and, it now has to be said after 38 years living overseas, mine), ‘Fish and Chips’ sounds like ‘Fush and Chups’.
Even here, far away from the madding crowd during a two-day retreat without internet (and only sporadic phone signal), I have found a link to the aviation sector that has dominated my life since I left New Zealand way back in 1987.
My Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc is done and I hear my gate calling like an aviation equivalent of Danny Boy’s pipes. Christchurch here I come
A glance at our home page tells you how passionately and well The Moodie Davitt Report women team members have embraced the task of underlining the importance of International Women’s Day. The page is splendidly awash with stories by women about women.
Yup, it’s my birthday, which as always coincides with the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales, who died in 589 AD. Roughly around the time I was born.
“How would you feel if I told you that we all have the ability to prevent aging, not just those of us who look young for our ages, but every one of us?” she asked. Very happy indeed would be my answer.
As we met outside our planned rendezvous in Aberdeen (the Hong Kong version, not Scotland), Andrew looked at me with bemused surprise. “Wow. You look so young!” “Yeah, right,” I replied miserably. “No, I’m not joking. You do. You look so much younger.”
Gary and I have inhabited the same industry for decades (he joined Plaza Bali in Indonesia in 1991), battled at various points an identical health foe, and retained our joy for travel retail over all those years.
