Given our blogging for the last six months has been somewhat lax (a blatant stretching of the truth, its been non-existent), we thought we should do as all good newspapers, TV shows have been doing and provide you with a summary of the year that was 2008 for Nik & Trent and hope that this makes up for being terrible tardy. We also thought that there was a fair chance you guys also couldn't remember what you'd been up to through 2008, so we'd put in some international event markers to help you out.
I'm also going to put my excuses up front, as some of you know the last six months have been CRAZY busy at work. Anne-Marie, my close friend and colleague had a baby in June and we didn't get a new person to help out until the end of August. By that point, I'd lost most of my ability to write, think about much beyond work (I have apologised to Trent, he has born the brunt of my stress, frustrations, and spent many weeks on his own as I flew around Asia). Its taken another four months to fully recover, and feel motivated and capable of writing something you might like to read. So here goes Trent's and my efforts.
January 2008: We started out 2008 back in Oz, working from the Sydney offices of EY & Mac. It was a year of promise which was looking to shape up into a good one as long as you were part of the western world. Pakistan was reeling from the assassination Benazir Bhutto, and looking down another year of political turmoil.
February 2008: Began with us fleeing HK coldest winter in 50 years for the sunny shores of the UK for Chinese New Year and catching up with Fran, Greg, Sarah, Sam, Paula, Andy and Paul.
Then we finished out the month with Frouke and Gary's visit, where they explored HK and China. We celebrated Frouke's birthday in one of our favourite restaurants, Olive. It was great to have them here - they were so enthusiastic about Hong Kong and everything they saw!
March 2008: Not really sure what happened to March, no one really seems to remember, apart from Vladin Putin being instated as Prime Minister of Russia rather than President, and Marion Jones is sentenced to 6 months jail for drugs to complete her fall from grace. There were the Rugby 7's in HK with the theme this year of Clockwork Orange.... wearing white to the Seven's seemed like a good idea, and it certainly beat the full Chicken suit!
September 2008: Lehman Brothers failed in spectacular fashion, and marked to start of the 'real global financial crisis' or the GFC as its being referred to here. Hong Kong has had the jitters since. September had continued much the same as the previous months, with me traveling a huge amount and Trent getting some peace and quiet! Thailand had started its political demonstrations, and meant we moved a conference with two weeks notice from Bangkok to KL. Luckily, I didn't bare the brunt of moving the event, it certainly put some strain on the team to pull it off. Ironically, our Intro to Partner was a huge success and we will consider KL again. It also meant that I got to catch up with Ben & Benieke again which was fun!!
Trent was insistent on a beach holiday for our mid autumn festival break, and strangely keen to go back to Phuket's Banyan Tree. We had 4 delightful days of blissful relaxation in a very quiet hotel - Thailand's politics and jellyfish swarms had put off most tourists, but not us. We sunned, snoozed, ate and drank our way through the days like experts!
(although the surf was a little off putting even for us... something to do with the 4 or 5 large trees rolling up and down the beach) 
Saturday afternoon we head off on the lagoon boat tour for something different, then meandered along the beach to Lotus Restaurant, 
which we'd come to enjoy, and ordered up big to round out a great holiday! My 4 kgs of prawns arrived (fractionally more than I'd expected out of 2 crustaceans) we polished off a nice bottle of wine and watched the sun set over the water. 
We then headed back along the beach to the sun beds outside the Banyan tree. We sat chatting away for a while, until Trent decided the moment was as good as it was going to get and popped the question. Needless to say, it was a yes for both of us, and I grinned like an idiot for the rest of the month! We tried to get the security guard to take a photo for us, but we think we've had better.... 
So while mates worried about whether they had jobs or were heading for home early, we celebrated quietly and hoped that October would bring better news for everyone. Luckily Slade was passing through HK so we were able to share with someone who understood what all the fuss was about!!
October 2008: started with heading back to Oz for Bec & Will's wedding
and Trent's mum's 60th (my dad's was in there too but more secretative!) 
It was a very brief, flying visit with lunches, dinners and celebrations jammed in to make sure we saw as many of you as possible. 
While it wasn't hugely relaxing, it was wonderful to catch up with those of you we did see. October went on to see Obama's election as the next US president take a major step forward with the introduction of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, and while her incompetence and interesting family arrangements served a easy fodder to the comic world, it also appeared to set the campaign for women leaders in politics back a few decades too. George W announced the bailout package of $700 billion much to the disgust of hard line republicans, and the world of finance held its breath in hope that the slide would halt.
I'm also going to put my excuses up front, as some of you know the last six months have been CRAZY busy at work. Anne-Marie, my close friend and colleague had a baby in June and we didn't get a new person to help out until the end of August. By that point, I'd lost most of my ability to write, think about much beyond work (I have apologised to Trent, he has born the brunt of my stress, frustrations, and spent many weeks on his own as I flew around Asia). Its taken another four months to fully recover, and feel motivated and capable of writing something you might like to read. So here goes Trent's and my efforts.
January 2008: We started out 2008 back in Oz, working from the Sydney offices of EY & Mac. It was a year of promise which was looking to shape up into a good one as long as you were part of the western world. Pakistan was reeling from the assassination Benazir Bhutto, and looking down another year of political turmoil.
February 2008: Began with us fleeing HK coldest winter in 50 years for the sunny shores of the UK for Chinese New Year and catching up with Fran, Greg, Sarah, Sam, Paula, Andy and Paul.
Then we finished out the month with Frouke and Gary's visit, where they explored HK and China. We celebrated Frouke's birthday in one of our favourite restaurants, Olive. It was great to have them here - they were so enthusiastic about Hong Kong and everything they saw!
March 2008: Not really sure what happened to March, no one really seems to remember, apart from Vladin Putin being instated as Prime Minister of Russia rather than President, and Marion Jones is sentenced to 6 months jail for drugs to complete her fall from grace. There were the Rugby 7's in HK with the theme this year of Clockwork Orange.... wearing white to the Seven's seemed like a good idea, and it certainly beat the full Chicken suit!April 2008: Saw in our first visit to pure luxury in Phuket's, Banyan tree...... with my boss (Liz hasn't lived this down since)! I spent my birthday in Bangkok with work, I did have drinks and cake paid for by EY but it wasn't the best one I've had, so thinking we'll do a better job bringing in the big 3-0!
Anke, Kyrs and Dush came to visit - it was great to share HK with them too, and now they know what we're talking about when we tell them about our shenanigans!
Dush was resilient, coping with new sites, languages and food as she always seems to do - although the walking tested her metal and she proved once again what a champion she can be. The HK/ China visit also marked the beginning of Kyrs' 4 months of Asian and Middle Eastern exploration holiday - one which I'm still quite jealous of!! It was lovely to have her come back to HK a couple of times on her way through!
April also saw Trent made permanent with Macquarie - this was probably one of the luckiest pieces of timing in the year with the whole financial meltdown only months away... One the world front, Austrian police discover 2008's sicko of the year, Josef Fritzl who had a thing for his daughter.
May 2008:
we moved into our new flat and they started demolishing the abattoir next door - we 
thought it'd only take a couple of weeks.... 7 months on they're still at it! May wasn't a good month for natural disasters after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar, and China experienced one of its worst earthquakes on record.
June 2008: We started with a black rain storm, Anne-Marie and Shaun had baby Cillian (now a 97 percentile child).
Work saw major upheavals due to the financial restructuring (you thought I was going to say crisis!) of EY across Asia. We went from being 15 separate partnerships to 1, and while that doesn't sound that bad, when you start messing with who gets to control the money its always painful. But we hoped that it would give us the competitive advantage to serve our clients better across border, be able to move staff around the region depending on where the work more easily (and I promise that is the last piece of EY propaganda). Hilliary Clinton pulled out of the race for the White House, and we all breathed a sigh of relief that we wouldn't have to see any more of those horror photos of her - it was fairly obvious which side the press were on..... 
July 2008: marked Nelson Mandala's 90th birthday and Radovan Karadzic was finally arrested after 12 years on the run for war crimes. And we started the new financial year but jumping on a plane to Kuala Lumpur to visit Ben and Benieke. We spent 4 great days with them, cruising around KL seeing the sights and generally having a really chilled out time! We didn't realise how much there was to see, and how different KL and Malaysia would be from the other Asian cities/ countries we've visited previously. Firstly, and quite obviously it is a muslin country, so visiting the national mosque was a must, and did mean dressing in robes so that we were appropriately covered.
It was also seeing the influence of Islam in the architecture everywhere, and in full celebration as part of the Petronus Towers in the heart of KL. Simply spectacular structures!! 
Then there were the Batu caves celebrating the Hindu gods, 
and encouraging a thriving monkey population... these guys needed to be watched, but were very cute. 
We did a day trip to Malacca, one of Malaysia's historical port towns, there is significant influence from the dutch, the English etc. 
Some great architecture, and beautiful beaches. We were also particularly taken with the transport!
B&B's hospitality was a huge part of how much we enjoyed KL!! Thanks again guys!
August 2008: August was the month of Sarah - Sarah was 'requested' to spend a month in Hong Kong to cover a maternity leave in their office here, so what could she do but take one for the team and spend a month cruising around HK and being my mate like she lives here all the time - it was fabulous to spend time with her and to see Matt on his brief trip up! Thanks again guys for sharing high tea at the Penn, it was rather fun to live it up in colonial style - I can't think of a more appropriate pair for us to indulge with!
Anke, Kyrs and Dush came to visit - it was great to share HK with them too, and now they know what we're talking about when we tell them about our shenanigans!
Dush was resilient, coping with new sites, languages and food as she always seems to do - although the walking tested her metal and she proved once again what a champion she can be. The HK/ China visit also marked the beginning of Kyrs' 4 months of Asian and Middle Eastern exploration holiday - one which I'm still quite jealous of!! It was lovely to have her come back to HK a couple of times on her way through!April also saw Trent made permanent with Macquarie - this was probably one of the luckiest pieces of timing in the year with the whole financial meltdown only months away... One the world front, Austrian police discover 2008's sicko of the year, Josef Fritzl who had a thing for his daughter.May 2008:
we moved into our new flat and they started demolishing the abattoir next door - we thought it'd only take a couple of weeks.... 7 months on they're still at it! May wasn't a good month for natural disasters after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar, and China experienced one of its worst earthquakes on record.June 2008: We started with a black rain storm, Anne-Marie and Shaun had baby Cillian (now a 97 percentile child).
Work saw major upheavals due to the financial restructuring (you thought I was going to say crisis!) of EY across Asia. We went from being 15 separate partnerships to 1, and while that doesn't sound that bad, when you start messing with who gets to control the money its always painful. But we hoped that it would give us the competitive advantage to serve our clients better across border, be able to move staff around the region depending on where the work more easily (and I promise that is the last piece of EY propaganda). Hilliary Clinton pulled out of the race for the White House, and we all breathed a sigh of relief that we wouldn't have to see any more of those horror photos of her - it was fairly obvious which side the press were on..... July 2008: marked Nelson Mandala's 90th birthday and Radovan Karadzic was finally arrested after 12 years on the run for war crimes. And we started the new financial year but jumping on a plane to Kuala Lumpur to visit Ben and Benieke. We spent 4 great days with them, cruising around KL seeing the sights and generally having a really chilled out time! We didn't realise how much there was to see, and how different KL and Malaysia would be from the other Asian cities/ countries we've visited previously. Firstly, and quite obviously it is a muslin country, so visiting the national mosque was a must, and did mean dressing in robes so that we were appropriately covered.
It was also seeing the influence of Islam in the architecture everywhere, and in full celebration as part of the Petronus Towers in the heart of KL. Simply spectacular structures!! Then there were the Batu caves celebrating the Hindu gods, and encouraging a thriving monkey population... these guys needed to be watched, but were very cute. We did a day trip to Malacca, one of Malaysia's historical port towns, there is significant influence from the dutch, the English etc. Some great architecture, and beautiful beaches. We were also particularly taken with the transport! B&B's hospitality was a huge part of how much we enjoyed KL!! Thanks again guys!August 2008: August was the month of Sarah - Sarah was 'requested' to spend a month in Hong Kong to cover a maternity leave in their office here, so what could she do but take one for the team and spend a month cruising around HK and being my mate like she lives here all the time - it was fabulous to spend time with her and to see Matt on his brief trip up! Thanks again guys for sharing high tea at the Penn, it was rather fun to live it up in colonial style - I can't think of a more appropriate pair for us to indulge with!
I also started my trekking the globe for EY with a short campaign into China and then a week in Sri Lanka. I was a little apprehensive of going to Colombo, given they'd let a few bombs off in the previous few months, and the Heads of South Asia were meeting the same weekend I was flying in. However, I was pleasantly surprised, I knew the people were delightful, but they were really just the nicest ever! I ended up staying in a hotel room that was bigger than our flat in HK (I know that's not hard, but its a little crazy on your own). I ate well, shopped well, and generally found Sri Lanka to be a fascinating place which I would recommend to others!
However, I was not impressed, I missed a typhoon back in HK which happened on a week day and meant everyone got the day off..... But luckily for me, Typhoon Nuri turned on a good one a couple of weeks later to celebrate Trent's birthday in style. 
It was a shame that the party junk Trent'd organised didn't quite leave port but it not every day you get a T9!! So we celebrated he's special day with a bottle of champers, and whatever we could find in the fridge.... 
August also had a small event in China, known as the Olympics, and while we were too slack to get our act into gear and see any events live, we did see quite a lot on TV. But I have to say the Olympics just aren't the same without Bruce McAvaney, and to be honest the two turkeys they dragged out of the bar in Lan Kwai Fong just weren't up to par - we all agreed (local and westerner alike) that any of us could have done a much better job that they did. But it didn't take away from the spectacle that China turned on - as much as you mightn't agree with their policies or politics, the Chinese were immensely proud of what their country had a achieved.
It was a shame that the party junk Trent'd organised didn't quite leave port but it not every day you get a T9!! So we celebrated he's special day with a bottle of champers, and whatever we could find in the fridge.... August also had a small event in China, known as the Olympics, and while we were too slack to get our act into gear and see any events live, we did see quite a lot on TV. But I have to say the Olympics just aren't the same without Bruce McAvaney, and to be honest the two turkeys they dragged out of the bar in Lan Kwai Fong just weren't up to par - we all agreed (local and westerner alike) that any of us could have done a much better job that they did. But it didn't take away from the spectacle that China turned on - as much as you mightn't agree with their policies or politics, the Chinese were immensely proud of what their country had a achieved.September 2008: Lehman Brothers failed in spectacular fashion, and marked to start of the 'real global financial crisis' or the GFC as its being referred to here. Hong Kong has had the jitters since. September had continued much the same as the previous months, with me traveling a huge amount and Trent getting some peace and quiet! Thailand had started its political demonstrations, and meant we moved a conference with two weeks notice from Bangkok to KL. Luckily, I didn't bare the brunt of moving the event, it certainly put some strain on the team to pull it off. Ironically, our Intro to Partner was a huge success and we will consider KL again. It also meant that I got to catch up with Ben & Benieke again which was fun!!
Trent was insistent on a beach holiday for our mid autumn festival break, and strangely keen to go back to Phuket's Banyan Tree. We had 4 delightful days of blissful relaxation in a very quiet hotel - Thailand's politics and jellyfish swarms had put off most tourists, but not us. We sunned, snoozed, ate and drank our way through the days like experts!
(although the surf was a little off putting even for us... something to do with the 4 or 5 large trees rolling up and down the beach) Saturday afternoon we head off on the lagoon boat tour for something different, then meandered along the beach to Lotus Restaurant, which we'd come to enjoy, and ordered up big to round out a great holiday! My 4 kgs of prawns arrived (fractionally more than I'd expected out of 2 crustaceans) we polished off a nice bottle of wine and watched the sun set over the water. We then headed back along the beach to the sun beds outside the Banyan tree. We sat chatting away for a while, until Trent decided the moment was as good as it was going to get and popped the question. Needless to say, it was a yes for both of us, and I grinned like an idiot for the rest of the month! We tried to get the security guard to take a photo for us, but we think we've had better.... So while mates worried about whether they had jobs or were heading for home early, we celebrated quietly and hoped that October would bring better news for everyone. Luckily Slade was passing through HK so we were able to share with someone who understood what all the fuss was about!! October 2008: started with heading back to Oz for Bec & Will's wedding
and Trent's mum's 60th (my dad's was in there too but more secretative!) It was a very brief, flying visit with lunches, dinners and celebrations jammed in to make sure we saw as many of you as possible. While it wasn't hugely relaxing, it was wonderful to catch up with those of you we did see. October went on to see Obama's election as the next US president take a major step forward with the introduction of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, and while her incompetence and interesting family arrangements served a easy fodder to the comic world, it also appeared to set the campaign for women leaders in politics back a few decades too. George W announced the bailout package of $700 billion much to the disgust of hard line republicans, and the world of finance held its breath in hope that the slide would halt.November 2008: But alas, November continued the slide for financial markets globally, and as the reality of redundancies and no bonuses sank in for many, the closing of this year looked a lot more dire than predicted. Barrack Obama became the first black US president and much of the world celebrated the end of the Bush era. The hope of change in so many policies was tempered by the financial results that just kept on coming. For us, November included 2 conferences in Bangkok, and good partying at Oktoberfest HK style. We had a blast and really enjoyed celebrating for Emily's birthday.
November also saw the first Bledisloe cup played in HK - and while it was a dead rubber, it didn't stop rugby fans of all nations turning out for a good night. As Aussies we'd like to forget the result, but we have to admit it was fun!
As the month drew on and I flew out for the second conference of new managers, Trent & I secretly counted down to our return to aussie shores (for those back home reading this and didn't know, we're sorry but we really needed time out). We played to fly in for Slade & Beth's wedding and then head up the coast on a "driving with a purpose" kind of holiday - the aim, to have found a wedding venue of our own, and in the process chill out, drink good wine, eat good food, and catch both our families to make up for our absence over Christmas.
November also saw the first Bledisloe cup played in HK - and while it was a dead rubber, it didn't stop rugby fans of all nations turning out for a good night. As Aussies we'd like to forget the result, but we have to admit it was fun! As the month drew on and I flew out for the second conference of new managers, Trent & I secretly counted down to our return to aussie shores (for those back home reading this and didn't know, we're sorry but we really needed time out). We played to fly in for Slade & Beth's wedding and then head up the coast on a "driving with a purpose" kind of holiday - the aim, to have found a wedding venue of our own, and in the process chill out, drink good wine, eat good food, and catch both our families to make up for our absence over Christmas.December 2008: But as they say, the best laid plans.... Thai politics got the best of us, and I spent an extra 3 nights in Thailand, coupled with a 10 hour bus ride to Phuket, flew to Singapore, and having cancelled my HK ticket, flew direct to Sydney... there were tears on landing, I've never been so glad to see everyone at Sydney airport - customs & quarantine included! My apologies again Slady and Beth, I didn't quite make it through for your special day, but from what Trent tells me and piccies show, it looked like a fabulous night!
We chilled out with Frouke, Gary & Kyrs on the Sunday, and then headed to Wiseman's ferry, the Hunter Valley, and onto the mid north coast. It was a great way to spend a week, and by the end we'd felt like we'd had a proper holiday - thanks Oz!
Our batteries recharged it was time to head into the silly season, and with our little tree installed, it has been our HK Christmas! 
It wasn't quite the same but fun none the less, much drinking and eating was had, and some quiet relaxing days before bringing 2009!
It wasn't quite the same but fun none the less, much drinking and eating was had, and some quiet relaxing days before bringing 2009!Happy 2009 everyone, we hope it brings better luck, lots love, happiness and laughter!
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