When my children were approaching high school age, we decided to move them out of Hong Kong, and put them into school in Australia.
We decided on Perth.
For no other reason than during SARS my family escaped HK and gone there, even though we were from the east coast. Everyone enjoyed it.
Also, as my business remained in HK, Perth was significantly closer to Asia than either Sydney or Melbourne.
This enabled me to realistically travel back to see the family frequently.
And enjoy the same time zone.
So Perth it was.
My children, having been born in Singapore and moving to HK when they were toddlers, had always lived in a flat.
We wanted them to have a garden. A bicycle! A dog even!
I’m sure like many of you!
And even myself! I had always lived in apartments since I was 3 and my parents moved to Hong Kong.
Anyway, the kids LOVED it.
(So did I!)
We were able to rent a HUGE HOME in one of the best streets, Thomas Street in one of the best suburbs, Nedlands.
A fantastic house.
Five bedroom, 4,400 sq. feet of living area, all sitting on over 10,000 sq. feet of land!
And we rented it for a fraction of the rent we had been paying for our apartment in HK!
We paid AU$700 a week! (around $4,000 HKD at that time).
We were close to the Swan River, parks, the beach, it was fantastic for the kids, and a great change for us after over 20 years in Asia.
But then something happened that would change everything …
