January 2025

The final two months of 2024 were action packed, mostly good but with a final dodgy flourish.

Highlight of November was a two-week round the world trip HK – London – San Francisco – HK. Despite Alex’ best efforts to keep his parents from attending, we insisted on going to his graduation ceremony in Coventry. He has secured a BA in Sports Management. Instead of using university premises, Coventry uses the spectacular cathedral for handing out certificates. This church has a special place in English history as the original one was almost completely destroyed by German bombing during World War Two. After the war there was a nationwide fundraising effort to pay for the replacement. The new building stands proudly next to the ruins of the old one. I remember a school outing to view the scene.

Chaotic travel in the UK was subject of a newspaper column on return (see Op Ed section) so I won’t go into details here. Despite the difficulties we managed a dinner with brother Tim, plus another with best friend from school Gerry Halls and wife Judith, both life partners of my late sister Lynda, Chris with wife Dawn and Rob Pelton. Niece Jenny not only turned up with a boyfriend and one son, she also paid for the drinks. Now that’s a family.

We even managed to track down the Kew Gardens bench in memory of my Mum and sister. All in all an action-packed week. At this point Fanny had to return to Hong Kong for urgent work commitments, but I flew on to California for a week with Tiffany.

What a week it was, too. Three days in wine country – one each in Napa Valley, Sonoma and Russian River – then my first ever NBA match with the incomparable Stephen Curry, and a fascinating visit to the Museum of Modern Art.

On return to Hong Kong I was a bit dazed, fell in the middle of the night and turned a somersault into the bath, hurting arm and banging head. A CT scan later confirmed no serious damage to brain but sky-high blood pressure. Priority for 2025 will be to address that.