Happy New Year 2002

To Family and Friends everywhere this is a newsletter of happenings of 2001.

March 2001. Helen, René and Robert went to Dubai for holidays.  This was an introduction to Arabia for Helen and Robert.  Dubai was thought to be a good starting place for Helen as it is fairly cosmopolitan with little restrictions.  We stayed at the Meridien hotel which had its own beach and swimming pool.  Robert loved the pool.  The shopping was not that cheap.  Helen was fascinated by the many ethnic groups living there.  Helen tried the hubble-bubble pipe but I don't think she liked it much.

May/June.  These were stressful months for Richard - A levels examinations.

Rene and Helen went to Paris for a Transplant Workshop.  The venue was Sorbonne the famous University.  It was the first time that we were together at a conference professionally.  Sorbonne was very impressive with portraits of famous French physicians, philosophers, scientists.  A different world.  The grand finale of the trip was dinner at the Eiffel Tower.  Our hosts had hired a special corporate dining suite from where we could see the sun setting over Paris.  Sumptuous meal with a selection of fine wines  for each course.  The wines were introduced by the Prize-winning Master Sommelier.  The climax of the evening was dancing to a Chicago Blues band. Quite a trip - thank you Fujisawa Limited UK. 

Summer.  This year we had a quiet summer.  We did not go anywhere as we were having our house re-modeled.  The basement was excavated so that it would be two feet lower to make the L-shaped space into a study for Helen and a play area/Home Cinema for Robert and René.  The work started in June with two weeks of very noisy work during the day as the workmen excavated the basement.  It was alright for Helen and I as both of us were at work.  Our neighbours, bless them, were less fortunate.  The floor to ceiling is now about 6 ft 6 ins compared to a previous height of only 5 ft 10in.  The walls have bold colours (see picture).

There was a wait of around three weeks before the new concrete floor was dried enough for the wooden floor to be laid.  The home cinema equipment had then to wait till December to be installed as the hall was being opened up and we had to wait for the dust to settle so as not to damage the equipment.  

The basement now has fancy lighting that has settings for six regions, a 6 ft drop down cinema screen,  a off the ceiling Sony projector,  5 speakers and a sub-woofer powered by state of the art Meridian DVD player, Surround Sound Processor and Power amplifier.  The sound is awesome! and the picture is great!  Helen even bought René a popcorn maker for Christmas.  A new settee  is arriving on the 4th January.

We also had our bathrooms updated.  The first floor bath now has a whirlpool bath that blows bubbles from the base and has 20 jets along the side plus sexy lights.  There is also a new washbasin and toilet.  The bath has been completely re-tiled and the floor tiling is heated!

The second floor bath now has a large walk-in shower enclosure with overhead shower and body jets. Also completely re-tiled with under tile heating.

The down-stairs loo has also been renovated.

The wall of the hall and the door down to the basement and garage have been removed.  This has opened up the previously enclosed space to make the hall much more spacious.  The hall and the stair well have had a new coat of paint.

August. Richard has done extremely well in his A Levels.  He got 2 As - for Art and Physics and 2 Bs for Biology and Chemistry.  He missed an A for Chemistry by 1 mark and is appealing.  Well done Richard!

September.  Richard began his medical studies at King's College Medical School at the Guy's Hospital campus.  This is because, King's, Guy's and St Thomas' medical schools have been amalgamated.  He is living at Wolfson House which is 2 minutes from his lecture hall.  His room is on the 12 floor with good views of London.  He sprained his ankle during his second week and had to have a plaster cast for about ten days.  He got a lot of sympathy from his female colleagues.  Richard says that he is having a great time.

Mei started her 5th year at Medical School.  She will soon become a doctor.

Christmas.  This year we had a great Christmas.  Robert who is almost four had lots of presents.  He told Santa that he wanted a car-transporter.  It took René 3 trips before he was able to locate one of those.  The first one was more solid but took bigger cars.  The second which took smaller cars was much more flimsy.  In any case Robert is very happy with his transporters.  Joanne and Mabel joined Helen, Jean, René and Robert for Christmas dinner.  On Boxing Day the whole Chang gang came - Tony's family, Stephen, Bernice, Hua, Yen and Mike came.  The ladies watched Bridget's Jones Diary upstairs while the lads watched a Chinese martial arts movie in the basement cinema. - Everyone was happy.