acumen

noun

1. the ability to make good judgements and take quick decisions.

Ms Claire lead us all into the back yard to where guest will be welcomed into the show area via a large side gate. She walked us through the whole event, just as our show attendees would pass through. The entrance, with the layered hanging red umbrellas with individual LED lights lighting them all up. From there, bonsai trees in Japanese barrel planters lined the walkway with more lights overhead.

White pebbles had replaced the dark chipped granite stones along the garden pathways, with the Timaru bluestone walls having been washed and scrubbed a few days ago. Low laying lighting directed foot traffic towards the large marquee and catering arena. Painted white silk table cloths graced each trestle tables where the wine and food would be laid out and presented on red square plates and in red tinted glasses. The colour would match the Asian theme throughout the whole venue.

Seating would be laid out along with tall, white silk wrapped planters, a large vase of red roses on each. An open air area with more seats and umbrellas would grace the space beside the marquee.

From there, leading down to the estate lawn, large wide steps in a semi-circle in the New Zealand bluestone, the chairs tiered seating would begin on the second to last step.

Gone was the grass lawn and gardens from there, covered by a wooden pathway and chairs seating platform. The seating would wrap around the lake and the walk way set up over the top of the water. Models would walk from backstage on the left, out over the lake, turning right towards the guests seating on the lake edge.

I loved the walkway. It was oak wood, painted with a natural high gloss sheen that contrasted the Timaru Bluestone throughout the estate garden. I worried a bit about how safe it would be for the models while walking on it, but Ms Claire assured me, their footwear would be adjusted with safety measures to avoid any problems.

The back stage, was where models would be changing and the technical lighting and sound table was almost all set up. There were a bunch of techie guys already running in and out of the place, setting up lights, speakers and cameras in unobtrusive places throughout the whole venue. I met the lead technical manager when Ms Claire introduced me. He looked almost as tough as Mr Denault.

I was told that by the time the models arrived tomorrow afternoon, all of the technical stuff would be fully installed and test ready. Ms Claire went over the last minute details for the music list, the audio visual projection and the coloured lazer display on the hidden fountain spray nozzles in the lake. I was suitably impressed, as I didn't even know of half of this technical stuff that she was talking about. I realised then, that the 'technical aspects' that Grant had included into the event programme hadn't been fully explained.

When I turned to my financial assistant and gaming partner, I found him grinning his stupid face off, and I knew. He'd held off telling me about all of the cool shhhh just to give me a nice surprise. I also now understand why the tech guys had been hired to set everything up five days before the event, which didn't make sense until now. The lights, cameras and sound was the easy part and left until last. I thumped Grant hard on my way past as we left the backstage and headed back into the venue.

My recovered cargoes were ready to sort through.

"Ms Lily, the police have completed their investigations and have released the van and its contents in full to us." Mr Denault stepped forward as he presented me with a computer tablet when we arrived back at the front of the estate entrance. I looked at the photos on display and found what was probably the initial photos taken of the back of the van as Wallace's men found it. I could see straight away evidence that only one of the boxes had been opened and the men's wear pulled out. Photography equipment had been used, but by the looks of the whole van, they had only managed to take photos of a few of the items from the men's clothing line.

"Wallace's team got there in time." I was relieved, hoping that was true.

"Yes, it appears. They will be apprehended within the next day or two. I don't believe they photographed much of your clothing before they were interrupted." Mr Denault tried to reassure me.

"Yes, I can see how that looks. Thank you." I passed the tablet back and he tucked it into a pocket on his cargo pants. Handy those.

We sent the contents of the box to the dry cleaners for an express clean, but everything else was still in their sealed up boxes. After Mr Denault's team went through them all, we were able to take them back into the house and sort them all out.

Care packages of silk robes, chocolates and bottles of wines were created for sales on the night – five hundred in total and I was grateful to Mrs H and her maid staffing team. They were a big hand gift wrapping it all up in clear and red tinted gift wrap. These would be displayed for sale on a table near the marquee after the show.

I checked with Ms Claire for a final list of our models and pulled out their sized clothing that would suit each man and woman on our model team. Eyva arrived with the high end silk (real pretty silk) slippers that I have no idea where she found, and they had another team of maids and home staff begin glue non-slip adhesives to the soles of the slippers, for both men and women.

I have a feeling that when we open shop, we will need to buy a bulk order of these slippers for sale in the store. They look so lovely and when I tried my very own pair on, I was sold. Mine.

Mum had arrived long before now and, along with a precocious younger little brother who thought he was able to match sets, we managed to fit together a whole bunch of model sets of clothes for each of the fourteen models we had lined up. Ten ladies and my five guy friends that I'd roped into the fun times. Then there was JacJac in the kids wear. I hadn't bothered to find a little girl model, as I felt that JacJac should be the star of the show.

Happy with the clothing arrangements, we left them all laid out on a set of tables that would be moved over to the backstage area of the venue tomorrow after lunch. We'd already taken photos and notes and everything, so if we messed it all up, we still had copies of the matching sets. But to be honest. With Ms Claire Godfrey's expertise, I doubted that we'd have any further problems. She was an absolute gem of an event manager. She had even roped her assistant to be the backstage manager so she could run around with her magic kit of magical things like skin tape – for keeping décolletages from exposure, or hair pins and spray, lippy and face setting spray and shoe grips for padding in the slippers if the sizes aren't quite right. Magical kit, I tell you.

Everything was ready. We confirmed the final guest list over the phone with Grandma Overmeyer and her staff on her side, then took a break for a late dinner. JacJac had his dinner earlier, but he wanted to join us, so I had him on my knee as my team and I ate in the staff dining room off to the side of the main kitchen. It was cozy, and just as well decorated as the family dining room. It was a true show of evidence that Wallace Overmeyer – and my mum – treated their staff really well.

OK. All set. Ready for the rehearsal. Yeah! Or so I thought, then Eyva arrived suddenly and exclaimed in surprise.

"Lily! What are you wearing for the show? You haven't shown me your dress!" and it was then that I realised that I may have forgotten one teeny-little-tiny really important detail. What the hell was I going to wear? And where was I going to find it on such late notice?