Movers in at Upper Albert Road
IT could have been the expat sale of the decade - except that Chris and Lavender Patten have decided to take home their tangible memories of five years in Hong Kong.
The Governor and his wife have spent the last week packing up their clothes, household goods, souvenirs and gifts, pitching in to help staff with the task of moving house.
The couple are due to leave Government House for the last time at 4.30 pm on June 30, and will bid farewell to Hong Kong from the deck of the Britannia shortly after midnight.
With just over two weeks to go, the Pattens yesterday had their boxes ready for the Foreign Office's appointed remover, Trans China International.
A full 12-metre container will carry the Pattens' goods to Europe, sending some of their possessions to France and the rest to England.
'They're taking the things they have collected during their five years here, general household belongings,' said housekeeper Elspeth Collins-Taylor, who co-ordinated the effort and who received an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list yesterday.
The family's Norfolk terriers, Whisky and Soda, would be flown to France by pet exporters, Ms Collins-Taylor said.
