Messages/pix from Peter Richardson, Marco Belgiorno-Zegna, Richard Wild, Mark Darling and Nick Back ...

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for the update.

On my side I departed Brisbane for KL, Malaysia on 9^th July for offshore subsea projects.

After quarantine in KL and also in Johor Baru I arrived at my vessel and still hard at it.

COVID has made all of these offshore projects difficult to manage and strangely enough there is a large amount of work out there coming on all at the same time - go figure.

I don’t think I will be home much before Christmas & my company have me booked up until this time next year !

Take care & cheers for now.

Peter J Richardson, PMP 

SOSB OCM - DP DSV ‘Southern Star’;

Mobile; +60 (0) 10 964 2170

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRP3z_64Vlc&t=99s&pbjreload=10

 

 

 

Buongiorno Andrea

Thanks for the update. Pity the dinner had to be cancelled just as we're about to come out of this never-ending lockdown. 

All good otherwise. I'm glad the performing arts are coming out of their hibernation. My Australian Haydn Ensemble are happy that the 18 December orchestral concert at the City Recital Hall is going ahead and will be announcing its 2022 concert program shortly. I've subscribed to both Pinchgut's and Opera Australia's 2022 program! Life is getting back to normal!!

 Ciao

 Marco (Belgioro-Zegna)

  

Hello Andrew,

Thanks for what you sent, very nice. Hope we can all meet in the future. 

I'm amazed that I left school in 1971; 50 years ago.

Regards, Richard Wild. 

 

Dear Andrew:  

 Well said, we will all try to skirt around and avoid the virus. Mark (Darling)

Dear Andrew,

Things are as well as can be expected in these frustrating times.

I retired to spend more time travelling but have had to put those plans on hold till who knows when.

So far have had to cancel a cruise to New Zealand (twice), a trekking holiday in Bulgaria and Romania, a trip to the UK and more recently 3 weeks in the Kimberleys on David Brooks’ boat.

Hope you guys are both well and keeping occupied.

Regards,

Nick (Back)

Message from John North to Nick and Andrew regarding ‘Street House’:

Hey Nick: to think some of us spent 6 years in that house and then the school sold it for a song. Sorry re reunion but little choice. Hope all is well, John.

 

 

 

Message from Andy Parsons ...

Hi Andrew,

In the spirit of your invitation for "snippets" I am writing, with a few hours to go until movement restrictions in NSW are lifted. I sold my dental practice in Nelson Bay 3 years ago with part of the deal that I stay on for a year. A bit surprised to be informed close to that time being up that I was not needed to continue after the "earn-out", but the lady who bought me out intended to have another baby and they needed someone to stand-in fulltime for her while that happened, and we all realised that was definitely not in my plans, so we parted amicably and I found myself out of a job after 42 years of dentistry. Great timing as Covid unfolded shortly afterwards and I was relieved not to have a business to run. I had already started volunteering for a dental charity, Filling The Gap, based in Sydney, so I could give that more emphasis. It became evident that they really needed someone to concentrate on providing dentures for our clients, and being an old guy with lots of experience in that unglamorous field, I now head up the denture clinic. Not something they teach now to younger graduates, but we treat lots of recovering addicts, homeless, refugees, victims of domestic violence, recent gaol inmates and people with social and psychiatric problems, and their dental state can be pretty poor, so they need dentures for self-esteem and to eat, so our treatment has a really big positive effect on their lives. I enjoy the time spent with our clients, they are definitely interesting and a change from my former private practice crowd, and it makes one reflect that it only takes one or two bad choices or unlucky breaks to be in a different world from our privileged surroundings. So after being locked down and locked out I am looking forward to getting back to work soon with the clinic.

After selling my practice I rewarded myself with a new boat, a Beneteau First 18 which sounds large and expensive but is actually small (and still expensive). I convinced Warwick S. to come to Lake Garda in northern Italy for a week to test-sail the class and we had a great time burning around the lake.  A new experience, to sail while it was snowing on the mountains around us, in spectacular scenery. Now I manage to sail twice a week and the boat is starting to perform better as experience grows. Racing has been in recess during lockdown but we have still managed "exercise" regularly on Port Stephens. 

My wife Gail and I now have 3 grandchildren, to our 2 daughters, but one of them lives over the Wall, on the Gold Coast, and the other in Sydney, so it has been a long lockdown being separated from them. I can now spend more time with my trains and am enjoying restoring my childhood trains and also building a scale tribute to the railway in Broken Hill. Travel, as for everybody, is in recess, but a couple of trips to northern Australia are planned for 2022. My passport will gather dust for a while yet.

I am enjoying life, appreciating good health, family and friends. Pretty damn good.

Cheers

Andy Parsons

 

Andrew Byrne keeps busy during lock-down ...

Dear Colleagues, 

I have been lucky to be in an 'essential industry' running my Redfern addiction medical practice thru the pandemic lock-downs.  Furthermore, living in Bowral half the week has meant that I have had the great privilege of seeing the seasons change with spectacular wattles in August then the magnolias, tulips, pear, apple and finally the double pink Japanese cherry blossoms this week.  

During some spare time I have returned to the Bard and re-read As You Like It, Merchant and Romeo & Juliet.  The latter has plague references and like Boccaccio's Decameron has many parallels with our modern world of Covid-19.   I found no joy whatever in Shakespeare while at Cranbrook despite studying one play each year for 6 years (who remembers which 6? And was it in Perkins room 10 for some of us?).  What wonder that I flunked first level English!  I now dote on every word in the plays I have read and seen.  "All the world's a stage ..."  "My kingdom for a horse!"  "A plague on both your houses!"  "Hath not a Jew eyes?"  "By her fine foot, straight leg and quivering thigh, And the demesnes that there adjacent lie" 

We have had 6 Covid cases in our clinic patients with all the medical and logistical difficulties involved.  Only one ended up in hospital (briefly).  Every week has been a learning curve.  Now we have 92% of our patients vaccinated and things seem more stable for the NSW opening up on 11th October 2021.  I have been doing house calls to the Redfern tower blocks during the 'hot' periods but again, things seem to have settled as targeted testing and vax services have been used along with GPs and pharmacies as elsewhere with great effect.  

Best wishes to all colleagues/alumni.  It has been suggested that we try to have a reunion dinner EARLY in 2022, possibly February.  It will all depend on progress of the pandemic playing out.  

Andrew Byrne .. Mob 0490408477