In January 2016, I created a Facebook post in the group, Kiwis in LA, advertising a room for rent in my two-bedroom home in northeast Los Angeles. After returning to Los Angeles in 2014 from 4 years living in Auckland, absurdly after just receiving permanent residency, I was “chuffed” to connect with New Zealanders going through cultural changes I experienced, only in reverse. I was having a rough repatriation. A quick departure had left me shell-shocked and misty-eyed. My Facebook post read, “...4 years in Auckland makes me want to help Kiwis get started or live in LA cheaper. PM for more details.” A response came in, “Could you do a bloke from early March for 4 weeks?”

   It was Glenn Elliott who answered my Facebook post. When Glenn contacted me in March of 2016, he wrote that he was coming to LA to set up an “import business.”

   “I produce a kiwifruit juice and I will be managing the first shipment – importation and distribution/sales in May.” His accommodation requirements were described simply: “good internet and cell coverage and the ability to park somewhere within a few blocks of home.” My house would perfectly suit his needs. It was up to me to decide if I could live with him in close quarters which included sharing a bathroom.

   Glenn’s Facebook profile picture was a little unsettling, a man in a too tight Santa Claus outfit with a big belly on which a large tattoo was engraved that read, “Black Sabbath.”

   “Why don’t we Skype first?” I suggested. We set up a time to “meet” each other and as the Southern and Northern hemispheres aligned, it was clear Glenn was not a big-bellied tattooed Santa after all. “...my office is in K Rd and I am above a tattoo shop and that is a photo from their xmas party...that is actually a real person squeezed into a $2 shop Santa suit!...scariest Santa I have ever seen.” I concurred.

   Then his words sank a little deeper “...an office above a tattoo shop.” The next minute I told Glenn, “I know that shop and I know you.” Although I neither recognised his name nor his face, that tattoo parlour on Karangahape Road was unforgettable. I had encountered it in 2012 as I searched for Glenn’s office to attend a meeting I scheduled for a “meet and greet” as an American media professional living in Auckland.