208 Sigs website reconstruction expert Lynn "Lee" Burgess has granted permission for the following sad news about his wife, Margot ("Meg"), to be posted to the 208 Sigs community. In an earlier email, Lee wrote "Meg has been in hospital for the vast majority of the last 6 months (cancer, specifically lymphoma, renal failure, et al). She is fighting like a tiger, but is being kept 'under' to ease the pain, she now receiving end of life care at our local hospital."

----- Forwarded message -----
From: Lynn Burgess
Sent: Thursday, 19 January 2023 at 09:22:13 am AEDT

Sadly, I have to inform that we lost Margot about 1630 18 Jan 2023. Her passing, while medicated, was peaceful.

Pain is only for those who remain. RIP

With profound regret

Lee

I guess the fact that we haven't openly discussed anyone's health issues on here is proof enough that the MB system is deficient at least in the privacy aspect. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer email because you can specifically target who gets your messages - and despite being a rabid anti-facebooker in the past, must now admit that it has certain advantages over semi-public message boards like this: the main one, imo, is sheer simplicity of operation. The lack of interest (or at least lack of use) by former regulars makes me seriously think this MB's time is up and we should think now about what to do with the equity that's been built over many years, eg donate the gallery to another Army-related site, etc etc. It's Pam's site - and always has been - but many folk have contributed over the years so must at least be invited to comment on the future...

And another one:
https://au.yahoo.com/news/kylie-minogue-breaks-silence-following-145424311.html

Thanks Ken - nothing in my mailbox yet, but will open carefully if something arrives...

G'day Ken - good to hear from you and hope you're well (I ask everyone that nowadays, since I went back downunder 2 months ago and caught a dose of Covid within days of landing - no thanks to those westerners who feel too important to wear facemasks and keep their distance from others). All good here (all VNs wear facemasks, not least because few if any can afford to take a day off work!), and it's about to get even better with a visit by a former mate who I haven't seen since we both served in the regimental band in Boys Service, 1960: 'Bad lads' had a choice when being sentenced - serve time in nick or join the band (the provost sergeant was also bandmaster!). Paddy and his brother live in the Philippines these days and are planning to holiday in SVN shortly - should be lotsa fun!

The last couple of years have been pretty tough for everyone, I think - we've all had our challenges. And that's why I was delighted to discover the great news today that my superannuation scheme will cover Linh and Sunny if I die before them (I've just never checked before, but the VN gov't wants our full financial circumstances as they assess our application for 'expat adoption', so I checked with the super scheme and now it's all confirmed!). I had always thought it might be the case with Linh because I remember being invited to name a beneficiary. But Sunny was an unexpected surprise - she'll qualify for 'dependent child' allowance (nearly 80% of full pension) after she's lived with us for five years, regardless of whether the adoption process goes ahead or not.
We're just passing the four years mark now, so I've only gotta stay alive one more year and she'll be covered until she's 18 (or 25 if studying full time) as long as we can prove she's been living with us for at least five years - which is easy in Vietnam because every household has a 'family book' listing the occupants with dates in, dates out, etc signed by the local People's Committee (they love to know where everyone is from one day to the next - and in this particular case it will be very useful!).
I've gotta say I've had unexpectedly good news before, but today's confirmation that Linh and Sunny will be looked after if (when?) I go before them just absolutely takes first place in my book - YEEEHAAAAA! 

OK, that's great - welcome to the new, all singing all dancing(!) Message Board courtesy of the "reconstruction superintendent and general all-round cyberspace mastermind", Lee Burgess! Let's hope we begin to see a few more of the former regulars taking up this opportunity for occasional chat. Yes, got your message about the yellow ribbon - I just wanted to check to make sure I wasn't missing out on something by being so far away these days! Yeah, bad luck for LFC - but that's football, I suppose! To be honest, I don't see much football these days, although the Vietnamese are crazy wild supporters of their national team, which just beat all-comers in the 31st Southeast Asia (SEA) Games - anyone going out to the streets that night would have been risking their lives because hundreds of thousands of people were celebrating by riding their motorbikes at crazy speeds on roads and pavements. Risky outside, but it looked great on TV!!!
Btw, if you scroll further down the list of General Discussion topics you'll see the earlier message I left for you - and a comment for you from Terry Windsor...

Probably best called "hybrid", Pam - VN words are easy enough once you get your head around the pronounciation rules (such as they are!), but it's a tonal language and I'm tone deaf!!! Then there's the language I use with our niece (ward) Sunny - our conversations usually start with "Beep beep" and go swiftly downhill from there: but we both know what we're talking about!!!