Cobtree

There was a time, 30 years ago when I used to be able to speak passable German and to read the language fairly well. Today as I met guests visiting from Germany I was somewhat embarrassed that I could no longer communicate effectively in the language. Since then of course, I have also learnt to speak the Chinese dialect of Cantonese but alas, cannot read or write Chinese. To this day my Cantonese is still passable but no longer as fluent as it was when I lived and worked both in Hong Kong and in mainland China.

Even though I am married to Jane, who is herself a Chinese lady from Hong Kong, we do not speak at home in her Mother tongue as she is fluent in English and prefers to speak with me in English. I have never fathomed why she would prefer to do so. I guess it is never too late to take lessons and pick up the language again but as our future plans into retirement are to relocate to the Italian island of Sardinia, which is out in the middle of the Mediterranean sea in Europe, I guess that Jane and I should start to learn Italian! For now though, we live and work in this beautiful region of upstate New York aptly called the Finger Lakes. It is a lifestyle business to which we have become accustomed to and we love the area and it’s people very much indeed.

This morning I received a telephone call from my friend Julia in Oakville, Canada. She told me that she is coming to stay with us at the end of August with her family and Jane and I are delighted. We are going to make sure that we have a fun time together with them and I have already reserved a pontoon boat out of Roy’s marina to go out for a day on the lake with them. We plan on doing some horse riding, visiting the Watkins Glen state park and other things with them as well.