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Our ISP in HK forgot to bill (direct debit arrangement)us and cut us off. Being HK, it was too difficult to reconnect for the sake of a month. I had hoped to put in a link but we were cut off without warning.
The dogs arrived safely in Melbourne and did their 30 days quarantine. The staff at the quarantine station were very helpful. It is so good to deal with a department with such good staff. They were released on Sat 21st August and by the end of the weekend they were exhausted!! They had done all their favourite things including running on the beach, swimming in the sea, swimming in the dam and chasing kangaroos.

While the dogs were in quarantine, Alan and I took the opportunity to go to Guam for a long weekend, compliments of Pacific Club, Continental and Hyatt. The Hyatt hotel is great and has one of the best swimming pools we have seen. It is on several levels with water slides connecting the levels.

Alan is enjoying his job at Geelong Hospital and Ann is looking forward to working part-time at Gribbles Pathology.

The new house is nearly complete. It has to be put on a truck and taken to Tallarook. The stumps have gone in but the land is quite wet and the upper driveway will have to be widened to allow the truck carrying the house to pass through. Ann will be leaving Hong Kong 17/9/99.

June/July '99

The dogs leave HK on 21st July assuming their most recent blood tests are OK. The furniture will be packed the day they leave, so they will guess something is going on. The furniture and car will then go the next day.

Alan starts at his new job at Geelong Hospital the next week. We are both going to work only part- time.

The house at Tallarook has been started and should be finished in October.

April/May '99

Our plans are coming together. Ann and the dogs are leaving HK in September and July respectively. These dates have been chosen so that if the dogs fail anymore tests, there is a bit of time up our sleeves. the dogs have 30 days quarantine in Aus. Alan has gone onto a 3 day week and now spends most weekends in HK.

Liu Dan has a job in Perth and is vacating our guest room in Footscray. Tao, a friend we met in HK, has it booked for a few weeks while she does some ultrasound in Melbourne but after mid August it should be free if anyone wants to book it up. Sandra, our friend and ex tenant at Footscray who kindly moved out to let us in, is moving to a house in Laverton in May. It is in a very pleasant area next to the old RAAF base at Pt Cook. In fact it is so nice, we may build a small house for ourselves next to her if the Council allows dual occupancy.

We are looking forward to the Medicolegal conference in Greece at the end of the month.

March '99

Our Melbourne ph and fax is +61 3 9689 1863 Our HK ph/fax remains the same.
For a number of reasons we are reviewing our plans to move to Melbourne at this point in time. Alan will be working for 6 weeks initially. Ann will continue to work in HK but will have frequent holidays in Aus. Watch this space for regular updates of where we will be in the second half of this year!!!

February '99

Alan is busy packing but Livingstone failed his rabies antibody titre. He had to have a booster rabies injection and another test, which set him back by 3 weeks. Ann and the dogs will now most likely leave HK in July.

The most exciting thing to happen in February was winning a trip to Guam in a lucky draw. We were lucky not only to have our card (queen of clubs) drawn, but even more lucky get our hands on the prize, over someone with a much louder voice insisting that she had won. The fact that her card was spades not clubs did not deter her in the least, which made us think that this method of claiming someone else's prize had worked for her on other occasions. We are very pleased to finally be going to a place which has been on our "list" for a long time.

For the last weekend in February, we are off to Shanghai.

January '99

We had our first Christmas in Hong Kong (usually we go to Macau) starting with Christmas eve lunch with Jim and Barbara Dickinson and then we had 80% of the English family with us for lunch on Christmas day. We are looking forward to a weekend at the Westin on the island of Coloanne in Macau at the end of this month with Peter and Nella, where we will "do" our favourite restaurants for the last time (for us). Pizzeria Toscana is a great Italian restaurant just opposite the ferry terminal and Fernando's, a short walk along the beach from the Westin, is probably the best known restaurant in Macau. We love his garlic prawns and imported tomatoes. We will also "do" the "Asian Artifacts" antique shop in the Coloanne Township and buy up our last Chinese antiques.

Ann was given some beautiful Chinese clothes when one of her colleagues moved house this month. Much to her surprise, most of them fitted. A full length coat came from Shanghai in the 1920s. It is very elegant and she is looking forward to wearing it to the opera in Melbourne.

Plans are moving slowly (being January) for the house at Tallarook. It is a small 2 bedroom with lots of living space and some decks to give the dogs (and us) access to the outdoors without having to worry about snakes. We hope the plans will soon go to council for approval. Ann has bought a "new" Peugeot 405 station wagon in Australia --same as her old car. Alan's Renault Alpine sports imported from HK is waiting for him. The baby HK Peugeot 205 convertible will eventually also immigrate to Aus.

Well, it's currently cricket season in HK, and Alan played a one-dayer at HK Uni. yesterday. They have a superb setting on the south coast of the HK island, overlooking the sea. The result was not so superb, our team (Chinese Uni.) was rolled and Alan could not manage to get out of the way of a caught-and-bowled chance, the ball stuck in his palm and he has the black and blue hand to prove it. More games will follow, now that Winter is here (22 - 24 degrees!).

December '98

The exciting news this month is that Alan has a 2 year contract with GV Imaging in Seymour, a country town 100 km from Melbourne on the road to Sydney. This is a friendly group with a high standard (what a change from private practice in HK!!), with branches in Shepparton and other northern Victorian towns. The other exciting aspect is that Seymour is only a few minutes from our 20 hectare property at Tallarook. This will now allow us to live there for a couple of years -- long enough to plant something such as olives. With the new ring road in Melbourne, it will also be easy commuting distance for Ann to work in Melbourne and we may finally see something of our Shepparton relatives.

For those of you we told we were going to Singapore, sorry. They were just too slow organising things and the attraction of a couple of years in Aus working with old friends again was too great. You'll have to be content visiting us at Tallarook!!

November '98

We are still enjoying life in the country. The consequences of country life never cease to amaze us, considering the popular image of HK. For example, we had a bushfire quite near our house and this week there was a rustle in the bush next to our front door (fairly thick jungle scrub beside our house). No it wasn't the illegal immigrant we are constantly warned about or even the burglar who has been visiting our estate recently, but a large wild bull. He visits so regularly that even Pirra has given up warning us he is there!!

The house was busier than usual during November. Clare came for a week and then joined us for a holiday in Hangzhou. Pat (Ann's Dad's senior carer) left dad for 2 weeks to dog sit instead of dad sit and was joined by her cousin Jenny from Sydney. Because at the last minute we took an extra week's holiday, Sara who we met at the Foster's B&S ball in HK, stepped in to dog sit the 3rd week. All the dog sitters did a great job by the appearance of the healthy happy pair who greeted us on our return. Speaking of the animal family, the Major Mitchell cockies had 2 babies recently in Melbourne. They are obviously very contented in their new home.

The Foster's Ball held late October was a great night. The venue was the old airport and it was basically outdoors. Pepperonis, our favourite restaurant, did the catering and we got there early to ensure we got our money's worth. But the highlight of the night was to listen and dance to Joe Camilleri and Black Sorrows. Their music is a graet fusion of rock, blues and jazz.

We had a few days in Adelaide where Alan attended an MRI course and I shopped between getting help from colleagues Noel Walmsley, Helen Martin and very briefly catching up with Phil Allen (ex HK). We stayed with our friends from Edinburgh days (late 70s) Pam and Vlad Humeniuk and it was good to catch up with Sophie, Daniel and Karen and their families Pictures. As always they were wonderful hosts and we were happily exhausted by the end of the week as were our livers. We will never forget the start of that yacht race. Sorry we were hanging on too tightly to get a photo!! Pictures

We then had a few days at Bedarra, an island off Cairns to recover. In between we caught up with our families, some friends, some opera and movies as well as organising a house to be built on our land at Tallarook (see December news).

October '98

We are still enjoying living out in the "bush" but one of the hazards is the wild life. There are lots of wild dogs with pretty good road sense. They are generally not a nuisance for drivers. But the wild cattle are a different matter. They swagger along the road as though they own it. Fortunately they tend to sleep at night because otherwise it would be hard to see them crossing. One day the whole herd seemed to be across the road causing a minor traffic jam. Sometimes when we walk the dogs on Sunday we see monkeys but we haven't seen them near our house yet.

This year was Ann's 25th anniversary of graduating in medicine. As it was not possible to join in the celebrations at either Melbourne or Queensland Uni, Jim Dickinson, wife Barbara, and family joined us for our own celebration. (photo) Jim was in Ann's year at Queensland Uni and is now Professor of Family Medicine at CUHK. The dogs were very happy as it was the first time they had had a mate for "dinner" since arriving in HK (photo of Livingstone, Pirra and Shy Dickinson).

It is time for us to go fishing again. We ate Alan's last trout from the fishing trip in February. It was still delicious. Remember if you want a fishing holiday to contact us. (See Highland Waters page)

September '98

We have been in Hong Kong for 2 years and it is certainly a different place now. The main difference is economically, with a major downturn in the economy. Fortunately for us, HK is still pegged to the US dollar. Other differences are an increased usage of Cantonese and less English. This will probably become more so as companies choose to deal directly with China, where the people seem to be making a real effort to attract them. Hong Kong's role as an intermediary is likely to diminish. Despite the poor economy, we still received a pay-rise of 6% but new appointees do not receive the same benefits as us "oldies". And by the way, if you Aussies are embarrassed by Pauline Hanson, we Hong Kongers have worse. Tien Pei Chun (representing the general Chamber of Commerce) stated in a Legco debate "we should never let the gweilo know our card". (Gweilo is a derogatory term for Caucasian). Maybe these attitudes are one of the reasons for the demise of HK.

We have just returned from a "holiday" in Australia. The holiday consisted of a conference for me in Brisbane (AACB) and one for Alan (ASUM) in Melbourne. Both were excellent and we resolved that we should attend overseas conferences more often to keep up in our disciplines. We also caught up with our families and some "culture" lacking in HK. This included Bob Dylan, Chigaco, Les Miserables, and Fiddler on the Roof in Melbourne and we were fortunate to see Geoffrey Rush in the Queensland Theatre production of Marriage of Figaro. Fiddler on the Roof was in the newly renovated Regent Theatre and it is magnificent -just as we remember it as kids. Topol was also good and seems to live the part. We both enjoyed Bob Dylan -in particular, his guitar playing was great.

We had Dr Liu Dan (whose MSc project Ann supervised) and her husband Warren, an Orthopaedic surgeon from Guanzhou, with us for some of the time and enjoyed various aspects of Australian life such as the wildlife, good fresh seafood and open fireplaces. Pictures

Fiona Currie who we met when Alan was working at Warrnambool a couple of years ago has been dog-sitting. We are now booked up with dog sitters for the next 12 months. She has done an excellent job as it has been a very hot month and both dogs are happy and well.

We arrived back in HK in time for the HK Medical Association swimming meet and both won medals, Alan in the Men's over 50 breaststroke and Ann in the Women's over 50 freestyle. Pictures

We were sorry to hear that our friend of many years, Lorraine Green died. We have many happy memories of holidays with Lorraine, in particular to the Whitsundays and to Greece, and were hoping she would make it to HK. Lorraine was always great company, very knowledgeable and intelligent and could talk to anyone about anything, but best of all, very down to earth. It was interesting to discover early in our friendship that one of her relatives had been a friend of longstanding, as well as the family doctor of Ann's grandparents. Ann too had known Dr Oldfield since she could remember. He had introduced her grandfather to the new wonder drug, digoxin! Although she was essentially a private person, there will be many, like us who will miss Lorraine. Pictures

August '98

Finally after many hassles, we have rented a HOUSE for our last 12 months or so here. It is in fact the first we looked at about 2 months ago but we thought it was too big and too expensive. As time has gone by, the price has fallen by about 20% in line with the Hong Kong housing market (selling prices have fallen by about 50% in the last 6 months). Also we discovered that although dogs live in nice flats, in general it is against the written rules. We were constantly told "we don't mind dogs -- ignore the clause in your tenancy agreement saying no dogs". Of course we didn't. So then we started looking at houses. The last hassle was a lovely house on a marina waterfront but the landlord refused to reveal he was letting the place to his bank. In HK where tenants have virtually no rights this could have meant we were out on the street with no notice if the bank took the place back (happening a lot here). So finally we went back to the first one, to find it was now in our price range (which admittedly had increased a little by then)

It is in a lovely development in Sai Kung, a seaside town, and our boundary is a "Country Park". (Not all good because of snakes --3 metre Cobra found in Sai Kung recently.) It has a pleasant outlook over the sea, (in the distance) and trees and hardly a high rise in sight. See also aerial view from Ansett -- estate is circular light patch on right side of mainland). It is open plan (amazing for HK) with living, dining and kitchen all in one, steps up to main bedroom and little study with balustrade to stop you falling into living room underneath (not unlike Middle Park) and more steps to 2 more bedrooms (which look backwards onto the street) and 2nd bathroom. It has a really large terrace.

Sai Kung is about 30 minutes to work for Alan and less for me and is where we have our regular eating place "Pepperoni's" pizza/pasta run by an Aussie family and BYO. It is out in the sticks but is a popular place at weekends.

The removalists came on Sat. Alan was working and I was moving, and by the end of the day we were pooped. About 9pm we got enough energy to have a swim. Great pool. We were the only ones using it which may not surprise you on a Sat night, but Sun AM about 10 was the same. Last night there was one other girl. There are also 3 tennis courts, 1 squash court and a gym.

The house is very comfortable except that the windows face west. Black venetian blinds are being installed tomorrow which will make a difference, as will shower curtains to our enjoyment of much more than the trickle we had at Union Court. We have a proper cooker including oven -- very unusual for hk where it is assumed that everyone cooks everything in a wok. This week a satellite is being installed so we can watch Aus TV and many other channels.

The dogs seem to be enjoying it although it is so quiet and must be quite boring compared with Union Court. Livingstone, very quickly designed a circular walk for us -- down the road, cut through the park, and back the road. In the mornings we do the circuit twice to get up a kilometre. There are a couple of dogs and the walk is, I suspect, designed around passing both houses.

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