I haven't had to do a lot of cast-iron block chipping or aluminium welding in my career since then, but I have a lasting admiration for the vision of the architects of the ATS scheme.  I'm still with IBM - 33 years seems to have gone by quickly - Alice Springs (Pine Gap) for 5 years in the early 70s, back to Adelaide in '75, and then assignments to the US, UK and Canada for periods up to 12 months in the late 70s. I moved to Sydney in 1979 with my wife Margaret and (then) 2 1/2 year-old daughter Stacey.  I moved out of hands-on technical work into a management role in the early 80s, and spent the next few years looking after various aspects of IBM's hardware and software support before moving to Hong Kong for 3 years in1988.  Back to Australia in 1991 - and have held a number of
management positions in software development, technical support and business management since then.  Returned to Hong Kong in 1998, initially to manage IBM Global Services Strategic Outsourcing operation across China, HK and Taiwan, and now as director of Strategic Outsourcing for Asia Pacific.  Interesting job, great place to live and lots of travel - the only downside being that Marg and I
don't see as much of our daughter (now in her final year of Veterinary Science at Sydney University) as we would like.  We expect to be in HK for another year or so, and have an increasingly burning desire to spend large amounts of time doing not much of anything, somewhere with wide open spaces, few people, blue skies and deserted beaches - sounds like we've been in HK too long, and Australia beckons!

Looking forward to being able to meet with everyone again in January 2006.