Mary Lavender St Leger Patten descends the white stone staircase beside her ballroom, her slight frame dwarfed by its colonial grandeur, and makes her way past workmen noisily drilling holes to replace pictures on the bare walls where her own artworks once hung.
Fresh from lunch with Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang, she is in high spirits. She enjoys Mrs Chan's company, is looking forward to rebuilding a family home and, best of all, the packing is finished. The removers have tissue-wrapped her responsibilities and carted away her headaches.
'That was a nightmare. I suppose it always is,' she grins. 'We kept discovering more things which we'd forgotten. It's just amazing what you find you've accumulated over a relatively short time.
'I used to wake up at 6 am and mentally do lists. There were some agonising decisions: 'Do we really want this - and where are we going to send it?' We're sending some to France and some to England.' As the 13-metre-long container of Patten family goodies heads for Europe, Mrs Patten is indeed more relaxed. Her beloved terriers, Whisky and Soda, which have scooted around the ankles of many a distinguished guest, will begin their journey to the couple's French country home tonight.
She is negotiating the purchase of a semi-detached house between Putney and Barnes in southwest London, a far cry from the expanses of Government House, its tennis court, swimming pool and gardens.
The sale is expected to be completed in September while the couple unwind in France, and Mrs Patten is convinced that life in a Putney semi-detached - with resident dogs and visiting daughters - will be 'very normal'.
'There is quite a bit of common for the dogs, not far from the river,' she says. 'I'll probably go over to England a fair amount . . . I'll be looking after it and getting a few things done for it.' Just a few days short of their fifth anniversary in Hong Kong, the Pattens are preparing to leave the constantly spinning world of political jousting for their secluded cottage 'in the middle of nowhere' an hour's drive from the southern city of Toulouse. They bought the home a couple of years ago and have already moved in their Chinese elmwood furniture and lacquerwork.