Uncle Ken's personal office.

Anastacia and I were pretty tired from all the exploring by the time we chanced upon a room, slightly different from all the rest. It was situated on the top floor but was tucked away in the back corner of the house, furthest away from the bedrooms and main living areas. The doors had alerted us of its special status. All the other doors, and indeed the entire house, were made of the same redwood. The large double doors to this room were made of an almost black hard wood and were re-enforced with thick bands of wrought iron. In between the iron bands were large studs of the same metal that looked like a railway spike had been driven into the door if that was possible.

"Wow. It looks like that door could withstand a battering ram," Anastacia said to me, her eyes wide with wonder.
"It's like the doors that would guard a castle," I said agreeing with her.
"Let's have a look what's inside," she said approaching the door.

The door handles were large metal rings about an inch thick made of wrought iron. There was one on each of the doors. The rings were held in the mouth of a metal lion. Anastacia grasped the ring on the right hand door and turned. The lion head turned with the ring and we heard a loud heavy clunking noise as the locking mechanism turned within the door. Surprisingly, as Anastacia pushed the door inwards it swung with the greatest of ease, as if the door was as light as a feather.

"Greetings girls. Seems you have found my personal office," came Uncle Ken's voice as we entered the room. We looked around in amazement at the furnishings. In the center of the room, on opulent plush carpeting, sat Uncle Ken's enormous desk, made of exquisite hand crafted wood. Behind him was a bookshelf several meters long that covered the entire wall filled with thousands of thick leather bound books. On the wall to our left was eight wall mounted television screens, each about a meter wide and no more than an inch thick. Playing on each television was eight different business programs that covered each of the world's most important stock markets. On the right hand wall was the room's only window in between two dark green pot plants. The window over looked the rear garden of the house and you could see the pool and jacuzzi from Uncle Ken's chair. Behind us on either side of the doors hung two painting that were illuminated by down facing spotlights. Everything in the room looked priceless.

"So what do you think of my sanctuary?" Uncle Ken asked but before we could answer he continued. "The doors behind you were taken from a 12th century English chapel before it was burnt to the ground. The desk was once the King of France Louis IV's. Each book is a first edition some dating back to 7th century AD and the paintings are some of Leonardo Da Vinci's earlier works."

Anastacia and I were speechless. Our families had always said Uncle Ken was rich but we had never known to such an extent. Uncle Ken gave us time to recover before he continued. "I'm glad you both found me as I have something to give you both." He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a pair of palm pilots, one for each of us. "Here is a little organizer for you two. It has a schedule for both of you on it that I expect you to keep to. It is connected via satellite to my laptop so if I need to contact either of you I can. Likewise for both of you if you need to contact me. Lucy, I have taken the liberty of booking an appointment for this afternoon with a personal stylist and a personal shopper so you can do something about your wardrobe. I will be taking care of the bill so order anything you like. Anastacia, you are welcome to tag along if there is anything you need in the way of clothes."

We accepted the palm pilots from Uncle Ken and started to have a look through their functions. Before we have a chance to discover much Uncle Ken had something to say again. "I'm sorry girls, but you will have to excuse yourselves as the Hang Seng is going live in ten minutes and I have a lot of work to do. Thank you."

He smiled and started changing the channels with his remote as we showed ourselves out of his office.
"So what does your schedule say now?" Anastacia asked me.
"I'm free to settle in for awhile until the stylist and shopper arrives," I told her after looking it up.
"Cool. Did you want to check out the pool before they arrive?"