Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
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- Free as a (Kiwi) bird and flying high in Haikou - April 13, 2024
- Discovering Food Accademia’s world of fine flavours at a Hong Kong cha chaan teng - April 6, 2024
It’s tough being on the road. Honestly. It truly is.
Here’s a picture of my laptop at my temporary Waikiki bureau on the Hawaiian island of Oahu just to show you how hard I’m working. I promise, I really, really promise I have not swapped my keyboard for a surfboard. Yet.
But hey, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy? Right? Right. So I admit to having closed up the bureau and taken a glorious few hours touring this magical island yesterday in the great company of DFS’s consultant here Sharon Weiner.
Sharon knows this place like the back of her hand and it was good to get away from the tourist places to view the many and diverse natural charms of Oahu.
It’s everything you’ve heard about and then some, a gloriously chilled out, often spectacularly beautiful island which embraces rich golden sands and dense rain forest within a few kilometers of each other.
[A magnificent Banyan tree. Banyan trees, common in Hawaii, are distinctive for the way their roots grow in reverse, reaching down to the ground from the branches above.]
This morning I took a long walk along the waterfront towards Diamond Head, a popular local tourist attraction and the name of a volcanic tuff cone, in the company of DFS Chairman and CEO Ed Brennan and his wife Debbie, here to celebrate DFS Hawaii’s 50th. Readers of a nervous disposition better look away now before they see me in my Aloha shirt…
On the way back we passed the DFS Galleria Waikiki, which is doing roaring business this year, not only with its traditional Japanese client base but also a burgeoning Chinese spend.
Pretty soon the celebrations will swing into action as DFS executives and employees gather for this landmark moment in one of the company’s spiritual and commercial heartlands. Oahu stands for ‘gathering place’ and for DFS never was the meaning more appropriate. It promises to be some week.
As I write, I’m looking out over my balcony to the most perfect turquoise sea you could ever imagine, with the magnificent volcanic hills way beyond in the distance.
Beneath me I can see young Japanese couples walking hand in hand along the beachfront and others sipping on a glass of something cool under the shadows of the palm trees. I can almost taste the crisp, hoppy bitterness of a cold beer from here.
But I’ve got a bureau to run. Right?
Yet it sure looks nice down there. And how can I deliver informed commentary if I don’t experience the place? And hey, it’s Sunday, get a life right?
Right…
“Waiter!!!!!!”
Lucky you – You are in one of my favorite places, enjoy and don’t get too much of a tan, you’ll never liveit down – love the shirt by the way.
Blinded by the light! You should have found a longsleeve one, that is just too much too soon…