Search Results for: Tim elkington

Lawrence Hargrave memorial Elaine and Paul and wind Volans moment Mural (detail) in nearby station Queen Victoria dressed up for the Art & About Sydney project Are we amused by The Wildhearts? Captain Cook Prince Albert the Good Penny Farthing made of modern cycles Ditto King Edward VII Ditto

Curses! Perfect day, with a sting in the tail. We took a train this morning to Helensburgh to have lunch with Paul Gilding and his wife Michelle. Having filmed Ian Kiernan the other day, I had decided to do Paul next. After a lovely lunch at The Palms Cafe, Stanwell Park, we arrived at Stanwell Park station, where I set up the camera and began filming. I then stopped the camera to avoid some background distraction, then I seem to have failed to depress the start button properly.

Depressing. Paul did an excellent interview, among other things talking about his impending new book, The Great Disruption, but those seven minutes of the past, present and future have now blown away among the eucalyptus trees. Will have to catch him again, somewhere else where our paths cross.  But if I’m going to make a serious project out of this, I’m going to have to create a failsafe process to ensure this doesn’t happen again. It’ll be clapper boards next!

When we first arrived at Helensburgh, Paul and Michelle drove us to the coast in their Prius, where we were going to walk on the beach – but the wind was pretty ferocious. But I did get to visit the memorial to aviation pioneer Lawrence Hargrave, who experimented with combinations of box-kites in November 1894. A nice Volans moment.

When we got back to Sydney, we went to visit the Australia Museum, only to find it closing within five minutes, so took a leisurely stroll through the parks, loving the statues dressed up for the Art & About festival, and listening to a street band, The Wildhearts, whose guitar/fiddle/drums format reminded me of Fairport Convention (one of my favourite bands in the late 60s and early 70s) and The Dharmas (one of Gaia’s) in their respective early days.

One of the tracks on the Wildhearts CD I bought from a guitar case in front of the band is called Yesterday’s Today. And it struck me that Paul and I are living in a world that we both predicted many years ago, of climate change and gathering threats to our collective security, though we both agree that the coming ‘Great Disruption’ will offer huge opportunities, if we know where to look – and respond.

And, even though cursing my luck (or lack of professionalism with my camera), I found today remarkably uplifting – including the giant, 12-metre high Bike Bike, by Alasdair Nicol, made out of scored of “pre-loved” bicycles. A work of huge genius – and a wonderful symbol of how early experiments and designs can mutate and evolve over time.

Morning breaks Ferry snakes Ian Kiernan’s workshop Part of the bow of HMAS Sydney Wayside artwork 1 Wayside artwork 2 Figures Elaine’s brooch Surfer and passing bird Step on ferry Sydney skyline Wayside artwork 3

The first time I came to Sydney, in the late 1990s, Paul Gilding took me out to Manly on the ferry – a trip we repeated today. First, though, we went across to have breakfast with Ian Kiernan at the Garfish restaurant, Broughton Street, Kirribilli, on the other side of the Harbour Bridge. He brought along Terri-Ann Johnson, his CEO at Clean Up Australia. We then went back to his house, just around the corner, where I did a brief filmed interview.

Stumbled across the bow section of HMAS Sydney, which I knew as the ship that in 1914 tracked down the WWI German raider SMS Emden. Then off we went, by ferry, to Manly – where I will let the pictures speak for themselves, though we also had a delightful lunch at Le Kiosk at Shelly Beach.

Linda McCartney hairstyle on a ‘black boy’ – or, in these more PC times, grasstree Berowra 1 Berowra 2 Andrea sitting in a naturally air-conditioned nook Honeycomb rock Interesting grain Ant with prey Andrea inspects interesting grain Berowra Marina Spidered mirror Erin’s headwear, my arm – shot backwards

We took a train this morning to Beecroft, where Andrea (Spencer-Cooke) now lives with her family, and then she drove us out into the countryside – where we took a walk alongside Berowra Waters and then ate a truly delicious al fresco that she had prepared on the dock at the nearby marina.

Andrea was a colleague and Muse during the time I was developing my thinking around the triple bottom line, in the early 1990s.  She is now part of One Stone Advisors, a networked consultancy whose name refers back to a conference we did as a joint venture between SustainAbility and The Environment Foundation (which I chaired then – and still do, though it’s now The Foundation for Democracy & Sustainable Development) almost fifteen years ago, introducing the triple bottom line, and called ‘Three Birds, One Stone’.

Later in the day we headed back to pick up her children, Erin and Cameron, and then went home with them for tea. Elaine saw on of their water dragons in the garden, but I missed it – though I did see some of Andrea’s photos on her Mac. Impressed that they can stay underwater for 90 minutes – but was even more impressed by Erin’s impromptu headgear that accompanied us to the station when the time came to leave.

Prime Minister Gillard  Brooke Corte and Peter Shergold crank up for ‘Social Business’ Ready to go

Among the media things I have done in Australia this time, I recorded earlier today an interview to air on the Qantas in-flight radio channel in December, and then went on with Jeni from the Centre for Social Impact to record a Sky TV panel discussion for their Social Business programme, hosted by Brooke Corte and Peter Shergold. View the discussion here.

P&O dawn: the view this morning Harbour Bridge Opera House 1 Opera House 2 Opera House 3 – with a pair of Asian hoodies echoing the building Opera House 4 Opera House 5: Japanese girl contemplates an icon Botanical Gardens 1: giant Ficus trees Botanical Gardens 2: graffiti in bamboo Botanical Gardens 3: Pan parties Botanical Gardens 4 Botanical Garden fruit bats/flying foxes: they’re killing trees and on the verge of being evicted Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 1 Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 2: Teddy Bear Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 3: Gallipoli Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 4: handkerchief Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 5 Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 6: Arrivals and Departures Woolloomooloo/Finger Wharf 7: Oldsmobile Wedding party at Circular Quay

Read much of William Gibson’s new book Zero History on the Qantas flights to Hong Kong and then on to Sydney, yesterday. History was all around, partly because I have been mugging up on the history of Qantas itself for a speech for the Qantas Foundation on Tuesday, and partly because Sydney brims over with history – both prior to discovery by Europeans and after.

Discovering a vast P&O liner moored across from our hotel this morning, I wondered what Captain James Cook would have made of its scale if it had come sailing out of the harbour towards him when he first arrived. It had rained heavily in the night and dense curtains of rain were visible early on, but the day cleared up later and eventually became distinctly summery. A lot more Chinese in the hotel and the streets than I remember from previous visits – and weddings of all denominations were everywhere to be seen across town today.

We walked around the wonderful Botanical Gardens, marvelling at the size of the Ficus trees – and at the number of the ibises. Elaine’s first time in Australia. Then a delightful lunch at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where the treasures ranged from Aboriginal woven eel traps through to paintings by J.W. Waterhouse. Had a nice glass of white wine from the delightfully named Hay Shed Hill winery.

Then back down the hill to the harbour and to Woolloomooloo, where we walked along the waterfront. Here, on a previous visit with the Murray Edmonds tour, we had bumped into a bevy of very attractive Miss Earth contestants, enjoying a delightful exchange of views. (Oddly, a few weeks ago I had a request from California for a copy of one of my photos that appeared on this blog at the time, showing Bob Adams of IDEO gallantly engaging some of the Misses Earth.)  See September 19 2006 entry, here.

Finger Wharf is dramatic, but tinged with the memories of all those who came and went through here, including immigrants arriving and soldiers leaving for two World Wars, including the Gallipoli disaster that helped forge Australia as a modern nation. Very struck by the etched glass panels in various parts of the building – and by the tribute set into the planked floor at one of the arrival gates, showing a man in uniform, a woman waving goodbye and a child holding a teddy bear.

A boy waving farewell to his father or older brother in WWI could so easily have ended up shipping out for WWII. This city wears its history well.

And now to finish preparing for the presentations I have to do here and in Melbourne, this week and next.