Retirement wasn't the "event" I anticipated. More of a whimper than a bang. See this related page (coming soon) for an outline of my career.

On a personal level it was a pretty good year. Lots of changes at home in the apt -- I guess having time allows for that. Here's a short update featuring family first.

Roger wound up his time as a PhD candidate. He submitted his thesis in early October. It goes through an external review process that takes between 2-6 months and he is hopefully installed as a PhD holder sometime soon. He went on some trips again, this time to Hawaii, China, Thailand & Laos at the end of the year.

Rex continued working in GZA Environmental, an engineering services company near Boston. He says the work is getting more interesting as he spends more time there. Hold on, that was last year wasn't it? I guess this year was set on the repeat cycle. He spent time away in short breaks, some in the continental US but he also went to Hawaii near the end of the year. Hhmmm, so did Roger. That's right, they met there for a short visit.

Kung had a good year in Thailand. I managed to visit three times. Her son is close to finishing university. That's expected at the end of 2023. He's also in the engineering field.

And now for my year ...

I spent a bit of time in PNG. I planned to retire at the end of the year. I started work as normal but my time wrapped up at the end of March. My work in PNG was with a NZ-based company that had a consulting contract to deliver the National Payments Strategy to the central bank and that contract was active for 10+ years. BPNG, the central bank, has a lot of politics, and one of those events at the end of 2022 was the replacement of the bank's Governor. As you can imagine this is tied up with national politics and the favor of the PM + cabinet. I won't pretend to understand the machinations of government but the outcome was the appointment of new Governor -- and the new Governor had different ideas to the old one. After about 3 months the new Governor terminated the contract of the NZ company I worked for. That meant an exit for me, too. It wasn't my desired outcome but I guess what it means is my work ended about 9 months earlier than planned. Not ideal but not a disaster.

I went to Thailand in March, June and October. When I was working I was cash rich and time poor. Now that I'm retired I'm time rich and cash poor. The 3rd trip this year was my last for what I expect will be quite a while so I took the opportunity for a victory lap and we (Kung & I, not The King & I) didn't "just" stay in Bangkok, we went to Penang, KL and Singapore, too. I met with old friends from work I haven't seen for 25 years; the great thing was that our time apart was immaterial, seeing each other was like we'd been together just last week. On my final trip I spent time with a lot of friends, managed to see a lot of things and ate lots of good food. It's a great memory for me.

With the extra time at home I managed to check off more items on my list of things to do in my apt. Here's the list (you might recognize it from past years) and my progress.

Item Wireless indoor security cameras inside the apt Replace carpets in the bedrooms with wooden floors Quite a bit of painting (walls, etc) Minor changes / improvements to the kitchen Bigger changes / improvements to the kitchen Renovate both bathrooms

Status Done in 2022 Done in 2023 Done in 2023 Done in 2023 Planned but not done; maybe in 2024 Planned but not done; maybe in 2024

I'm quite proud of what I've done, especially as I'm not exactly a handyman. Some countries have a Gun Register -- a list of people authorized to carry guns. If there was a Power Drill Register in Australia my name would not be allowed on the list!

Early in the year I was given advice about painting walls by a friend. I had zero confidence to try that but he helped me with direction and came along when I bought my first cans of paint. Taking his guidance I tried painting a few walls and was surprised that they turned out pretty well. I quickly found out that I'm lousy with a brush but a roller is quite forgiving and I'm happy with the result(s). I've said it before -- it's good to have friends.