The alarm goes off at 6am because we live in Clearwater Bay and the girls, who are 10 and 13, have to go to school in Aberdeen. It's quite a trek every morning.
I wake up easily because I'm a morning person. I get the children up and pile them in the car. I'm not hungry in the morning, so there's no breakfast. My husband [Michael] and I take turns to take them to school. I'm usually in the office before 8am because that is my most productive time of day - that first hour before the others come in at 9am. In that hour I get a lot done: e-mails, writing letters, proof-reading; the tasks that require concentration. It's my administration time because, from 9am to 6pm, there is a constant stream of people to deal with.
In one week, we'll have 1,400 children between the ages of 16 months and 16 years coming through the doors at different times with parents, nannies and domestic helpers. It's really full on.
I started Kids' Gallery in 1996 and today we have 70 staff. We help children develop intuition, creativity, sensibility and practical skills through classes such as painting, singing, dancing, fashion design, photography and Chinese brush painting.
I'm mainly involved in administration and my job title is managing director. We started with only one room but it has taken on a life of its own and has grown tremendously since then. Mothers like to talk about their children and our growth was driven mainly through word-of-mouth. People seemed to feel creative education didn't exist in Hong Kong. It's got better and the industry has grown, but it's still not great.
I used to pride myself on knowing all the children's names, but I can't say that any more. I've had to train myself to delegate more, but I find it difficult because I'm a detail-oriented, hands-on kind of person. I do teach one course. I get involved in the speech and drama classes. I think it's important I do a bit of teaching. It's easy to become removed and teaching is what we are about. I get a real feel of what we are doing if I do some teaching.
