Freedom

Today was yet another exciting day of learning - through playing! We visited both Taichi & Charissa’s and Joseph & Janet’s houses. What began like a holiday ended up being more powerful than any BOM!

It all started off with a sumptuous meal of seafood at Hung Hum, treated by Taichi & Charissa. With the beautiful bay as backdrop and delicious seafood in front, our self-introduction turned out to be declaration of our goals!

The two houses were all beautifully finished with strong personal flavors. Taichi & Charissa’s new house is a HK$15 million 3-storey terrace with good sea view from the top floor, which is an open-concept master bedroom eclectically done up with seductive glass bathroom.

Joseph & Janet’s house, on the other hand, is also a 3 storey terrace but with split levels and roof terraces at intermediate floors and rooftop. Internally looking with minimalist contrast of dark wood and white-wash walls, it is indeed an architect’s dream come true!

We had a wonderful bbq session at Joseph’s garden. I must say this could be the most relaxing bbq that I’ve ever enjoyed and besides the timely hot soup, even the bbq food tasted better than ever. While Janet was busy making sure everything was ok, Joseph was loudly sharing his experience which turned out to be a mini-BOM, in Mandarin – a very alternative one indeed!

As I was reflecting on our way back to our apartment, I was thinking about what Taichi had said to me during lunch about my goals, and what I saw with my own eyes the lives that they are living now. The word “freedom” keeps coming up in my mind. It seems funny that I’ve been preaching to people about financial freedom and only now I got a little taste of what it means and really looks like. It is however not about the dream houses by the beach or the BMW and the Merz outside their houses. More importantly and excitingly, through Joseph’s passionate and humorous sharing, I begin to see what it is about “freedom” and why is it so important, at least to me. It is an empowerment - empowerment to do nothing or anything without any monetary burden attached to it. In short, it could be freedom to design anything – something that only architecture master can achieve in the past and something that I’m really passionate about! I believe that “freedom”, in some form or other, is what most, if not all, people will fight for. And I realize that I’m not only a messenger, but also a fighter now. This game of life is getting more interesting and exciting!

“We all only have one life, we can’t control or change other people but we can control and change ourselves, our lives. Why not fight for our own freedom, and do whatever we want later?” – Joseph Cheung (when he’s half-drunk, or at least pretended to be)