DATE: 29 June, 2004 FROM: Ross MoncrieffHi David,
It's been more than a few years since I posted something on the old website, although I have visited it from time-to-time, so I'm glad that you're considering a revival.
I'm still with IBM after all these years, now more than 15 since returning to Australia in late 1988. Although it's been a long time since I worked as a writer, I still find myself updating any document that comes my way. I think I picked up a lifetime disease from Ian, whom I still fondly recall on the verge of salivating when he heard there was a new document awaiting his attention! These days I'm working in operations, managing the day-to-day finances of our call centres in Australia. This is a recent change from many years as a project manager, wherein I had the luxury of travelling the world at the company's expense, and keeping in touch with a few of the old Cobdengasse hands, such as Ian Wright and Sue Powell. I made the change primarily to get my life back - the last project lasted more than three years, and I spent nearly every evening on the 'phone to our supplier in Edinburgh to check on changes. These days, I watch a bit of TV, read, and (you guessed it), try to stay in front of my e-mail!
Cynthia (Cyndy) is also still with her original employer (Immigration), although it has undergone a number of name changes in the two and a half decades she has spent with them. Until very recently, she was involved in regional work which involved travelling intrastate to advise employers on immigration matters (we still take in 140,000 migrants, mainly business people, each year). Like me, she has opted for a change, and will focus on writing immigration policy for the government (having done just about everything there is to do in immigration, she's now the acknowledged expert).
Our older son, Angus (Gus), who was born in Vienna, is now in his last year at high school. Part of the reason we altered our working hours was to provide more stability around his evening hours, although I'm not sure why because he spends so much time on the sports field. With an Austrian birth certificate, he always gets the Arnie treatment ('I'll be back!"). Our younger son Hamish is not quite so athletic (although his Soccer team is well up in the top echelon this season), and has a few more years to go before finishing school. Regardless, both of them are off to the ski fields next week to do a little snow boarding with their school (remember - it's winter here in the Southern Hemisphere!).
With our sights now set on life after the boys (well.., young men really) finish school, Cyndy and I have embarked on a new project. After years of 4-wheel touring the outback of Australia, we're turning our attention back to the coast and some serious sailing. We ordered a new yacht from a builder in Germany back in March, and hope to take delivery in November this year. Initially we will moor it in Pittwater, a large cruising ground to the north of Sydney Harbour, where I have crewed on a friend's yacht most Saturdays for 15 seasons (there's that number again). We will place it in charter to help defray some of the costs involved, and use it mainly in the off season for coastal trips. Depending on how we feel about the yacht in years to come, we may take it further afield, although I have aspirations for something a bit bigger (41 feet versus the current 34 footer).
Next year we plan to be in England for a friend's wedding (another boy who grew up to be a man before we had time to notice), and will make a return trip past a few of our favourite haunts (like the Canal du Midi in France, where we took a canal trip with Angus when he was about 12 months old), and of course, Vienna. Hopefully we will also catch up with a few European based people from the former 'country club' (so Sue had best get her kitchen finished!).
On a parting note, Cyndy keeps in touch with one of our more reclusive members, Steve Foehringer. Steve is based in Reno, where he has raised his son Adam (also born in Vienna about a year ahead of Angus). In a note we got from Steve earlier this year, he suggested he might return to Europe, now that Adam was '... raised, that is, 18 - umglaublich!'. Fairly typical of Steve - short and to the point.
Wishing everyone the very best from down under.
Ross Moncrieff, PMP®
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