Catherine Chin:
CLASS OF 1972
Midland Avenue Collegiate InstituteClass of 1972
Toronto, ON
London, ON
Ryerson University - BusinessClass of 1979
Toronto, ON
Walter Perry Public SchoolClass of 1968
Scarborough, ON
Catherine's Story
Life:
I have been living across the pond in the other London for over 25 years now. I live with a special friend (Alex - see photo album) near Greenwich & Canary Wharf. We live in a house on a lovely hill overlooking the bright lights of the big smoke. We are only about 5 miles from town, so we take advantage of the arts & culture available at our doorstep, albeit not enough.
I have lived in three cultures, explored dozens of countries across 4 continents saving South America for a rainy day & came to the UK for the adventure which still progresses.
Since I've been here, so far I have had tea at Buckingham Palace with 6k of Lizzie's mates; saw the races at Ascot from the Royal enclosure; flown helicopters although, never quite got my licence; climbed Mt Kinabalu in Borneo not in record time; sailed the North Sea in 8 knot winds - leaving some of my guts there; worked for a Duchess who taught me about aristocratic etiquette; sold raffle tickets to a Princess, who is in Palace heaven now not Di; orchestrated high net worth events including one with another Princess in Kensington Palace, not Di either & others with a PM's wife; had tea with a Lord at the House of Lords; had champers with a Duke at his home, who has joined the Princesses in Palace heaven now....the list goes on & the adventure continues....
Btw, no one on this side of the pond ever had to stand at attention each morning gazing at an ancient pic of Lizzie at her coronation singing to her...the Brits think it's hilarious that we had to do this til '67!
School:
It has been interesting to connect with so many people from my school daze & others who attended before & after I did that I never actually knew. Amazing how the years close the gap in years, but still wondering about Sandra Platt...who was my first memory of school after being dumped by my Pa at Walter Perry & being petrified - I think I cried for the first hour or so, until she came over to play with me & we became fast friends...despite thinking her name was Linda - it seems that I thought that all round eyes had the same name as the girl on Make Room for Daddy.... anyway, the last time I saw Sandy was shortly after we...Expand for more
both left high school & she was living at Bayview with a West Indian guy & worked at Coke in accounts at Thorncliffe Park....has anyone ever come across her? We lost track & it would be good to catch up with her....
Btw, we were one of the two Chinese families that lived on Glenshephard & our family lived at the beginning of the street off Danforth Rd. We lived there from 1957 & my mother moved out in 1994 when she remarried & is now a widow living in Willowdale.
Workplace:
I moved to the UK in early 1990 to run the European & Middle East operations for the Globe. Then when Thomson Corp decided to follow suit with the Tory fall in '92, they chose to close all overseas operations when the Canuck Gvt closed most of their trade development operations overseas.
So having left the private sector, I moved into the social change sector in '95 & secured my British citzenship in '97. I spent a year living in Baku, Azerbaijan with my (then) partner & worked briefly as a Public Affairs Consultant for BP/Statoil.
I have been running my own social change consultancy for 10 years, as a fundraising & governance consultant for charity & NGO clients in the community, culture & health sectors, working primarily in health with a short stint working in the hospice care & children services sectors for leading charity brands in the UK and now taking tourists around a World Heritage Site in Greenwich, Old Royal Naval College, once the home & birthplace of Henry VIII & his 1st two daughters, Mary & Elizabeth, the 1st two queens of England. The site is also one of the leading period film & Hollywood feature flick locations including Pirates of the Caribbean, Les Miserables, Skyfall & the classic 1958 flick 'Indiscreet' with Ingrid Bergman & Cary Grant.
So still loving life in blighty.
To mark my 27th year in blighty, I have clipped off my tresses & donated 2 braids of 19" & 22" to a charity, the Little Princess Trust, that makes wigs for kids w/o hair & then Alee clipped off the remains to a #4, despite my desire to go for a #1. 💇
Happy new year, all! 🎉
For more current updates, connect with me through twitter at fundmarksol or my facebook page at Cat Chin.
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