Anson Christmas Newsletter 2020

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2020

Merry Christmas from sunny New Zealand!

As you read this, Len and I are most probably sitting in our campervan in NZ, as we are spending 3 weeks over the Christmas break driving from Auckland down to Lake Pukaki / Mt Cook National Park and then back up again with our two tiny dogs, Teddy (Yorkie) and newcomer Rupert (Papillon).

2020 has been the year of COVID-19, and we have been incredibly fortunate for the way this country’s handled the pandemic. Auckland endured a strict 4-week “level 4” lockdown in March, which curbed the number of new cases almost straight away, and NZ is seeing maybe 1 or 2 new cases a day in quarantine for returning residents which means it’s all under control.

Life here has been normal except for the travel restrictions (and we don’t miss flying!), so it’s been very nice to take the opportunity to have mini breaks away in our own country whilst settling into our house which we purchased just before Christmas 2019. We spent a few long weekends heading away on mini breaks, such as New Plymouth, Matakana, the Bay of Islands and Waihi Beach on the Coromandel Coast; NZ is a small country of 5 million people but with so much to offer in terms of food, scenery and things to do outdoors.

MICHELLE & LEN

Workwise it has been busy. Lissom Spa & Beauty has been in and out of lockdown, Lissom’s online sales have been going well as everyone needs shampoo during lockdown, and I took up the new role as GM of another NZ skincare brand, Savar, which has just become part of Aussie brand management company Access Corporate Group. It’s a lot of work, and I hope to figure out a way to avoid working 7 days a week next year but am loving the challenges of running beauty businesses.

All in all, a great year for me compared to 2019 when I was in and out of hospital and being very unwell in general.

Missing Mum, Dad and Crystal in Australia, but hopefully the trans-Tasman bubble will reopen in early 2021 in time so they can fly over to view the America’s Cup yacht races which will be in prime view from our seaside suburb of Devonport.

Wishing all health and happiness for the year ahead, Michelle and Len

G’day everyone! This year has been full of surprises; some good and some not so much....

I spent last Christmas with the family in Auckland before meeting Andy in Cambodia. We started off in Phnom Penh with a few days dedicated to visiting the sombre sites of the killing fields. It was a lot to take in but it was important to stop and recognise the horrific past these people have overcome.

Cambodia is filled with beautiful historical artifacts (Banteay Srei, my favourite temple at Angkor is depicted above) but the main highlight for me was seeing how the locals had rebuilt their culture and livelihood. A few examples include the Cambodian Living Arts which was founded by a genocide survivor and musician focused on reviving endangered performing art forms and rituals and APOPO where large rats from Tanzania are trained to sniff out explosives along the edge of the Thai border which is the most densely landmine contaminated region in the world. To date, APOPO has recovered and destroyed over 47,000 hazardous items and has contributed to the release of over 19 million square meters of land, all without loosing a single rat.

On the final leg of our journey we were involved in a mini bus crash. The car in front had suddenly swerved without looking and despite our driver’s efforts to break, we impacted strongly and disfigured the front wheel. Luckily no one was hurt.

Back at home we were all recovering from the horrific bushfires.

Mum had sent me a very high quality face mask to shield me from the microscopic ash particles. It then came in handy when COVID arose. It was like going from one apocalypse to another. Lock downs came in place all over the country. Queensland borders remained closed for most of the year meaning that I haven’t been able to go home for over a year. On the bright side New South Wales was one of the first to open up and when it did Andy and I ventured out to go hiking at the royal national park. All the blackened trees had hundreds of little green leaves shooting out of the bark. The colours were so striking and it was wonderful to see how plant life was replenishing itself.

In other news the project I have been working on for the past 5 years is now complete! Montefiore is a set of individual living units run by a Jewish facility. It has high end finishes and incorporates Jewish traditions. This whole process has been very eye opening and I’ve learnt a lot. My next goal is to learn more about incorporating more sustainable practices in the built environment.

For now I’m looking forward to reuniting with mum and dad in South Australia for Christmas.

Hope you all are well.

Crystal

Dear families & friends Last year we spent Christmas and New Year at Michelle & Len’s home in Devonport NZ. I really enjoy NZ way of life, fresh produce, clean air, beautiful scenery and the food and wine just amazing. After we say goodbye to them on 1/1/2020 we haven’t see them for a year. We are grateful to have DHL and mobile phone, FACE time, what’s app to keep us connected.

Pat and I celebrated Chinese New Year by the Brisbane River at a restaurant called “Stanley” which reminded us of our HK beloved beach. They put on the best Lion Dance & the best Chinese banquet dinner.

We went to a Gin Discovery in a wine bar tried out at least 10 different kind of gin to start with and admire their collection of 250 different kind of gin in the premises. It’s funny your daughter buying you alcohol! It’s a nice Christmas present from Crystal.

Thank goodness before COVID We went to see a few shows Cirque du Solei and the Queen & Adam Lambert-The Show Must Go ON (live concert at

an open stadium. OMG all the audience were wearing ponchos, I’m regretted I didn’t bring my NZ hiking waterproof to the concert! There was plenty of rain as Queen rocks Brisbane. Everyone were standing on their chairs, singing & waving their hands together when they sang We WILL Rock You, We are the Champions and Radio Ga Ga. Amazing Guitarist Brian May, love this concert very much disregard soaking wet trousers and tops and shoes and Mascara running down on the singer Adam Lambert’s face! Amazing! Even Pat joined in miming and stamped his little feet.

Due to COVID in March Govt imposed hair appointment restricted to 30 mins and follow the rule 1.5m social distancing. That was a bad start and I know it will be getting worse. All beauty salons were closed. All the shelves are empty in the super market. Even the Govt told people not to panic.

Well whatever - we did store food enough for 10 days in our freezer. Up to now we still have some Covid left over.

In April school continued to run and finally all Queensland schools closed in April, all staff were given a laptop and started Working from Home.

After Easter holiday I worked from home for two

week. But I decided return to work in the office to have a face to face conversation. (as I am over 60 I am regarded as a Senior I need to produce a doctor’s certificate to prove that my health is good to work in the office). The school is pretty quiet without any trace of students. Finally Govt announced school opened on 25 May. School back to life again. COVID definitely changed our lives.

For me our pottery class were closed, but pottery teacher “Helen” gave each of us a lump of clay, go home and make something. I made a big Pandemic pot with lots of pattern carving. Its beautiful I never done so much carving in one pot! All because I have lots of time. Glad the studio opened again in June.

SINNE virtual meal via zoom. She ordered a birthday dinner pack from a wine bar & restaurant. Pat did the final food presentation & a cocktail. We had dinner at the same time via zoom. It involves 3 time zone (the parents Brisbane time 6:30pm, The host Crystal Sydney time 7:30pm, big sister Michelle Auckland NZ time 9:30pm). We all had a chat, eat and drink and lots of laughing. Pat had the computer set up at the end of our dining table. It was a nice family get together dinner. I can’t believe I am 65! Wake up Sinne time to stop and smell the roses.

Pat and I went to the coast - Noosa for our birthday long weekend. I didn’t realize the accommodation came with a spa! We just take time to indulge and relax.

In July pat and I went to have our first holiday of this year. 3 hours drive to Hervey Bay, its famous for whale watching and fishing. A good spot for a relaxing holiday by the beach!

In November we celebrated our 39 years wedding anniversary, we spent a weekend at the coast “Burleigh Head”. Famous for seafood, walk, swim and relax.

Every year in October the girls will come back home to celebrate our marathon birthday together (Pat 30/9, Sinne 1/10, Crystal 3/10). Obviously we can’t! Thank Goodness we have DHL, lots of presents been received from the girls & a creative card from Crystal. She sent us an invitation for a

For our Friday Friends day “happy hour” instead of going to the pub, we now switched to our house, drinks & nibbles continue just at a different location. I continue to have my gym training twice a week.

My little group FAB 4 continues to celebrate our birthday dinner with each other. We have been doing this for 11 years. Nice to share our good times and bad times with our long time friendship group.

Wishing you all a good Christmas, Enjoy time with family and stay healthy Lots of love Sinne

I can only say that 2020 was a very eventful year, for us and the world in general. It started well with a trip to New Zealand to walk the Routeburn Track and stay a few days in Queenstown with Sinne followed by Christmas and New Year staying with Michelle and Len in Auckland with Crystal also joining from Sydney.

The new year started much as the old one finished with weekly visits to Melbourne however the travel came to a halt in February as Covid restrictions started to come into effect, little did we know then on how our life would be affected.

The Routeburn Track is one of New Zealand’s “Great Walks” and involves walking over 32km through some pretty steep and rugged terrain over a period of 3 days. Weather was very mixed with the second day in the wildest terrain being windy (cold) and wet to the extent cameras did not come out until we had reached our destination for the night, fortunately we were staying in good huts and could dry out thoroughly before the next day. Anyway a few pictures of the walk are better than me trying to describe it. On a side note on getting back to Brisbane I was speaking to my boss and asked him about his broken wrist – he fell on the Routeburn a few weeks before we did the walk!

Anyway in Australia we have been very fortunate in that the Covid infection and death rates have been very low with the price to pay being heavily restricted/ non-existent travel permitted between the States and Territories of Australia and lock-downs and restrictions on gatherings and travel within Queensland. Fortunately we are just now starting to see the easing of restrictions so most travel within Australia will be possible by the end of the year. The travel restrictions have however meant we have had to put back planned holidays, seeing old friends including the H4 50th in Hong Kong – hopefully we can get all these activities rescheduled in the not too distant future.

Christmas with all the family was very enjoyable and we made sure the new house was stretched to the limit in accommodating us all, Teddy the resident hound had a most exciting time being looked after and played with by us all.

I was inducted into the new way of working “WFH – Working From Home”with our offices around the country shut down unless there were exceptional reasons to go in – I was 100% WFH for around 6 months and have only been back in the office part

time for the past couple of months. It takes a bit of effort to not get distracted from working at home and to be conducting “Face to Face” discussions over Teams, it will be interesting to see how things work out in the long term.

In some ways this year I have been fortunate as my doctors identified that I had Atrial Fibrillation which needed to be treated – 3 attempts over several months at rebooting (Cardioversion) the heart were attempted, basically this involves electric shot treatment to get the beat regular. These attempts did not succeed so had to go for the live rewiring option (Ablation) where the surgeon burns out some of the controlling nerves from within the heart. As I said earlier it is fortunate the condition was found and secondly the treatments did not affect travel plans as these had already been cancelled by the Coronavirus. Currently it looks as if the latest treatment has worked but this is to be confirmed in the next couple of weeks.

Sinne and I have mangaged a couple of short trips within Queensland recently as travel restrictions have been eased, weekends away to Hervey Bay, Noosa and the Gold Coast.

Pat

PAT

ansonps@optusnet.com.au Pat & Sinne Anson 22 Mukurta St,Chapel HIll, Queensland,Australia 4069