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Amidst volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tremors throughout the archipelago of Indonesia, Oundle is represented by a small but growing group of OOs, scattered around the archipelago, attracted by the natural beauty of the country, the warmth of its people and its rich opportunities for the adventurous. With two additional OOs arriving during the last year, there are plans for an OO dinner gathering in Bali over the coming Christmas period. OOs from neighboring regions are most welcome to join.
I moved back to the region of my birth in 2011. Having spent a solid year working as the Marketing Manager of a golf course in West Java, an opportunity came up to become the General Manager at a golf resort in East Java, 50km from Surabaya, called Finna Golf and Country Club. This appears to be a perfect opportunity to develop my university degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management, combined with a deep passion for golf. My day-to-day responsibilities are to oversee the successful operations of the whole resort and provide excellent customer service to all visitors. For all OOs based in the Asia region and worldwide, it would be a great pleasure to welcome you here for a game or two. Our Peter Thomson-designed course is set amongst an area of vast natural beauty and, besides being scenic, is suitably challenging for golfers.
One of two new OOs to the region is
Edward Long-Price (G 99). After working 10 years for a British shipbroking firm (including seven in Singapore), he asked – and was allowed – to go to Bali to try working remotely. Arriving in October last year, he says the 10 months so far have been “nothing short of a dream!” Due to the fantastic connectivity, he has been able to continue his career as a container chartering broker, while also having the freedom to surf every
morning, meet a hugely diverse array of new people and take in three Bali street mongrels, who desperately needed a home. He describes his time so far as “a truly life-changing experience” and intends to keep exploring the endless highlights “this beautiful island” has to offer.
The other new OO to the region is Rowan Watt-Pringle (St A 00). For the last eight years he has been working in marine ecology training and conservation in South Africa, Cuba, Honduras and now Indonesia. Since the beginning of 2017 he has been managing a remote island site in the Wakatobi National Park near Sulawesi, running a year-round scuba diving centre which serves as a marine research expedition base for two months a year for British organisation Operation Wallacea. Despite studying Journalism and post-graduate English Literature in South Africa, thanks to his experience in the field Rowan recently gained the opportunity to undertake a PhD in Coral Nursery Research, looking at analysing the resilience to thermal stress of corals growing under low-light conditions. The research will be centred on working with nursery- grown corals and undertaking an active conservation programme to restore rubble slopes with transplanted coral fragments. This means a further three years of living in the middle of nowhere with no running water and power from a generator for six hours a day. However, he couldn’t be happier!
Olivia Gross (D 03) reports that she, her husband, Nick, and her daughter, Heidi, moved to Singapore last April. Olivia has been working for Ogilvy as a PA. They live in the same condo as another OO, Charlie D'Alton (Sc 01), which makes one realise how small the
world is. Nick's company have said that they are likely to move to Europe early next year. Merrik (S 03) and Alexandra (D 03) Baggallay came to Heidi's christening in December 2017, with their daughter, Lottie, and Olivia says it was lovely to see them.
Ning Chong (Sn 03) married Linus Lim, a fellow Singaporean and LSE alumnus in April 2018. Ning also started a boutique art consultancy and gallery called The Culture Story, working with private art collectors and organising art exhibitions and projects in Singapore.
NEWS FROM ABROAD
Indonesia
By Simon Reynolds (Sn 02)
Malaysia & Singapore
THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2017 –2018
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