Old Collegians around t We checked in with some of Old Collegians who are currently living overseas, and asked them to share a little of their lives with us.
David Tarr, OGC 1989 Japan My wife and I met while working in the NSW ski resorts, and we still own a house in the Snowy Mountains. Because we love skiing, we worked back-to-back seasons for many years, swapping between the Snowies in the Australian winter to Japan during the northern hemisphere winter. For the last three years we have lived full-time in Niseko on the most northerly Japan island of Hokkaido, where we manage ski and snowboard shops and hotel valet operations for Hokkaido Tourism Management. We often employ young Australian travellers on working holidays to Japan. Like many countries, Japan has been riding a rollercoaster during the pandemic, and international visitors have not been able to enter the country. But we recently finished a fantastic snow season with only domestic guests and almost empty ski slopes, and springtime brings fantastic bike riding and hiking in an incredibly beautiful place. The upcoming summer Olympics will present the government and people of Japan with another challenge to contend with. As soon as international travel opens up again, we will visit Australia to see our family and friends.”
58 Ad Astra Issue No 140
Aaron Wileman, OGC 1982
Carla Yee, OGC 1992
Portugal I am quickly approaching my 20th year living in Europe. After living in Germany, England and France, I moved to Lisbon, Portugal about three years ago to give my family the opportunity to live in a dynamic and vibrant culture. Lisbon is the second oldest city in Europe and a hot spot for tourism, but has also firmly cemented itself in the future, fast becoming the silicone valley of Europe. The balance of a vibrant young start-up community situated within the backdrop of the traditional Portuguese history and culture is a great place to be raising my children. While I live in Lisbon, I run a London-based creative media and marketing consultancy and production company through which I consult to businesses globally on their business, brand and marketing strategies. Unfortunately, Lisbon has not been spared the challenges of the pandemic. Travel, schooling, general movement and other leisure activities have been severely restricted for close to 14 months. However, I have found that the family driven culture of the Portuguese has certainly seen the community come together powerfully to overcome those challenges.
Hong Kong We live in the south of Lantau island in Hong Kong, where our back yard is surrounded by the mountains and our front yard is the beach, and local traffic jams are usually caused by feral cows or water buffaloes. We’ve been in Hong Kong since early 2010 for my husband, Dirk Engeler’s work - he has worked predominantly in the banking industry but is currently the CISO for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and the chairperson of the Fintech Association. I’m a forensic scientist, but unfortunately there are few work opportunities here due to the low crime rate, so I’ve been a stay at home Mum to three children (a nearly eighteen-year-old daughter and twelve-year-old twin boys). There have been ongoing disruptions to the city, particularly with schooling, since the 2019 democracy protests and now the pandemic, however it is still a vibrant, fun and safe place to live.
