PERSONAL FACTORS
Annex 2
Its value in my
I dislike the Albany flat more than my wife.
work is limited, so the return on the investment and running
costs is low. But it greatly adds to the stress of living in
Hong Kong. One has the choice of living entirely in
air-conditioning or submitting to the noise and pollution of
Central.
Much of my career has been spent in places as hot or hotter
than Hong Kong and I have a strong aversion to air-conditioning. Sleep is disturbed when it is on
impossible, because of the noise, if a window is opened.
and
The advice we have been given (for example by Lord and Lady
Wilson, and by Baroness Dunn) is that the way to keep well and
enjoy life in Hong Kong to the full is to have a complete
break at weekends. That is not possible for us. We find
sitting on the balcony impossible.
We have commissioned house agents and colleagues to search for a weekend cottage that I would pay for, to keep my wife
well and me sane. This was the traditional compromise in New York, where we spent four years. But there is nothing
remotely within a budget I could
afford.
S P Day
16. 12. 92