Fatherhood

Fatherhood

I finished my duties with the Hotel at the end of '92 prior to them closing down for the six week makeover in January '93.

My son Jazz was now six years of age and in his first year of primary school at Redlands Junior School, a co-. educational school in the lower north shore handy to where we were living at Neutral Bay.We had been living apart for fifteen months and in that time I would pick him up from Balmoral where he was living with his mother and take him to school and sometimes after school and always see him on the weekends.

 Lynne, his mother had moved a lover in where they were staying at Balmoral. I started to notice that Jazz was losing his sunny disposition.He was always happy, smiling and laughing, whenever I arrived to see him or to pick him up for school. He  always had a little mischievous smile on his face , and loved playing any game and still does. One morning he was waiting outside the small row of townhouses just back from the beach where he lived, for me to take him to school,with a glum look on his little face. When he got into the car,  I asked him what was wrong and he said "Mum and Scott were arguing." After I dropped him off at school,I took this up with Lynne, who said her relationship with Scott "was  over" and Scott would not move out. I then stepped in, as I was paying the rent  and their had been no assistance towards it from him. so I told him" to pack his gear and be gone as the lock would be changed that day".

Lynne and I discussed, living together as room mates, to make life more stable for Jazz.Which is what we did and  moved into a  large three bedroom apartment in Neutral Bay overlooking Forsythe Park.That arrangement lasted for about three years. Then it started to become intolerable with arguments and Lynne then moved out with a girlfriend and Jazz stayed with me.

During this time having a park on the doorstep of the apartment made activities like cricket, kicking a football, easily accessible. I bonded back with Jazz who fortunately became a lover of all sports.We loved fooling around around on the sports oval. Now he was of the age that he could take instruction of how to bowl a cricket ball and keep a straight bat, keep his  eye on the ball and hit the ball in the middle of the bat. Making him more confident to increase his skills.

Mum and Dad had moved from Coffs Harbour to Terigal on the Central Coast and every second weekend we would drive up to spend the weekend with them. Close by there were some sporting fields with cricket nets to which Dad, Jazz and I would go with bat, pads and ball.  Spending time with Dad and Jazz at the nets, bowling and batting, instructing him on his techniques  were golden moments especially for "Pop" as Jazz called my father.When it was time to go, there was always from Jazz " one more ball Dad"- this normally went on for another half dozen or "until you get me out" or "till I get the next wicket".He would always ask for confirmation on his performance and I would always be honest - " you batted well, sometimes you would lose concentration and your head would start to move" I gave him a mantra when he batted to repeat in his head, when he faced the ball -  'head down and keep you eye on the ball and move your feet'.

We both had our own bedrooms at my parents place, they had bought a villa in a small cluster development, about half a mile inland from the beach at Terigal. It was a good break for me when we went up to stay with Mum and Dad, as  they both loved having us there for a couple of days. Mum loved cooking for us, you were never allowed into the kitchen when Mum was cooking - that was her rule. My father adored his grandson seeing him grow from a toddler to a budding sportsmen and as he got older someone he could impart some of his considerable wisdom  to. Further into his teens, when we arrived at their home and after the hellos and hugs and kisses Dad would steer Jazz into his study and they would have a chat one on one for a while before they would come out and join Mum and i who would be sitting in the lounge room.

Redlands had an active academic and sporting curriculum and Jazz thrived in the schools co educational atmosphere.The school was  close to where he lived, making  many friends as he did, with a teaching staff that was  nurturing, reignited his open, sunny, effervescent personality.He loved his school,his teachers, his friends and the sports.Not being  academic myself, I Ieft the teaching to the teachers.

Athletics,cricket, rugby, skate boarding ,skiing, surfing, Jazz took to them like a 'duck to water' . He had plenty of help from others in mentoring and coaching.

We went skiing when he was five to to Perisher with Susie Graham and her son Oddie, who was with the Australian Institute of Sports Ski team. The first day Susie organised  Jazz into the 'beginners learn to ski' and he won his first race. Robert, Susie's husband, advised - "Tone don't get him involved in skiing because it costs 'an arm and leg' and if he's good, which he probably will be, the next thing its off to Switzerland and Austria for the downhills".As it turned out that is exactly what happened with their son Oddie. He became one of Australia's best downhill skiers and daredevil extreme skiers.

Even though Redlands had an active ski school,I did not have to worry as when winter sports came around the sport Jazz excelled at, was Rugby. As Redlands did not start till their Rugby competition till year 3, Jazz commenced playing with the Mosman Junior Rugby Club who started teams from age of six. As they were short of coaches I was asked to help and ended up coaching his side for four years.

These were some of the most enjoyable times, coaching these little guys in the intricacies of a game that had been so good to me.Teaching them from an early age and watching them develop and progress through not only in Rugby, but  in their lives.He has kept these friendships  and at his age, now 25, several of them are still close, though non of them play rugby anymore.

Little boys around five and six remind me of lion cubs, they love wrestling and tussling with each other, their energy and exuberance is inexhaustible,  rugby is so good for channelling it all.It made me realise how much I liked children and I could see the enjoyment teachers must get from teaching and seeing  the results of their efforts.

We trained on Thursdays early evening down at Balmoral Oval. To commence I would have them do a run around the oval, then an easy exercise routine and then a game of 'Cocky Laura' which would then quieten them down.Then we would have a 'huddle meeting'.They would love this, you get them in a close circle and then explain the program for the next hour.I can still see their little faces intently listening and absorbing what you were saying and their responses when you asked questions.  You give them the base idea of the game and a few rules, then the ball, split them into two equal sides, explain about running the ball when they have possession and touching the runner who has the ball,  they don't tackle till their second year and then let them go. Which is total bedlam and anarchy and on the first few evenings of training it is hilarious and out of control,  you wonder will they ever get it. Off course they do.That's the fun part, as you start to see each little individual start to grasp the fundamentals and help their mates who may not be so quick on the uptake.

Our team was the Wales, there were normally two to three sides per age group and the coaches would organise games amongst each other as part of the training and in preparation for the competition game on Saturday mornings against other clubs. These were great fun as the parents would all come along and be sideline coaches. In the first two years the coach would be on the field with his team coaching from behind, cajoling, yelling,encouraging,congratulating and tearing his hair out.At half time the boys would all sit around the coach in a circle and listen to the coach's message and what was done right and where they 'blown it'.The parents standing behind their children, and the team manger handing them all an orange to suck on to replenish the energy the first half had sucked out of them.Then you would give them the strategy for the next half of the game and run behind and try to help them carry it through which sometimes they did sometimes they did not.

Sport helped Jazz blossom into a very confident, well adjusted young boy who became captain of cricket, rugby and athletics and  the junior schools sports captain at Redlands in his final year. He was selected to play for the Combined Independent Schools Rugby fifteen and then represented the NSW Schoolboys, the first ever for Redlands Junior School.

I was asked to a meeting  with Brother Ernest Headmaster at St Josephs College, Hunters Hill. This was initiated by Bob Baraket, a mate who thought Jazz had potential. Bob had friends in the Joey's old boys network and at his commendation they organised the meeting.Thanks Bob for that.

At the meeting in the headmaster office, we both met Brother Ernest.Jazz after some informal chat, was taken for a tour of the school by one of the students. Then Brother  Ernest informed me of how the college operated, the day boys and boarder situation, with boarding becoming compulsory in year eight.I explained how this program appealed , as I could see the added responsibilities and obligations of single parenting would become onerous as Jazz became older combined with the burden me having to work and keep him on track with his studies, sport and social life. Brother Ernest asked how I was faring financially, I told him that I was doing it tough  at present. At the time I was getting spasmodic consulting work and was in throws of re inventing myself and moving from the hospitality industry and looking for a full time job. He asked if a relief of school fees would assist for the two years whilst Jazz was a day boy and then full fees would apply when he became a boarder. "Oh yeah " I happily replied. Jazz returned from his tour of the school and Brother Ernest asked if he had any questions, he had one. "Sir how often do they have religious studies"? Brother Ernest replied "two periods per week Jazz do you think you can handle that" Jazz replied " yes sir ".

Leaving Redlands was not the wrench I expected,because several of the blokes he started with, like him, went from the junior school to other senior GPS schools. Yes, there were definitely aspects of Redlands missed - there were some teachers that we had a fondness for, it was a school where he shone and flourished. 

For the next six years Jazz attended Joey's. Commencing as a day boy for the first two years, I would drive him to Greenwich Wharf where he would hop a ferry, which would take him across the Lane Cove River to Woolwich, there the bus would take him to school.In the afternoons i would pick him up after sport and home we would go.

On Saturdays it was sport, sport as he got older was our bonding. in some ways our communication tool. it enabled discussion points, that then led elsewhere in broaching other topics.Such as courtesy, manners, team ship and working within the team, being a leader and being selfless, other peoples strengths, failings and foibles. The opportunity of driving him to school in hid first two years at Joeys' was a godsend for the reason that he was "captured." As they get older it is harder to gain their full attention, the driving to and from school allowed for discussion about studies which was never his pet subject. Although Jazz always seem to fare well enough in his tests and exams. Like myself he leant more to the Humanities than Maths or Sciences. Drama was becoming a subject he was starting to connect with and through out his years at Joey's it became his favourite subject.

I have never read a book on parenting, it has always been by seat of the pants, intuition, speaking with other parents, confiding with Mum and Dad.  Also Lynne who was always only a phone call away, we got on better by not living together and Jazz saw her often.The combination of these were all important in helping me guide, direct and lead Jazz.Plenty of times I blew it, I am not one to keep my feelings intact when I deal with and issue concerning Jazz, I let off steam quickly and he knows where he stands,it blows away as quickly as it fires up.Some of my personal indulgences would not stand up to scrutiny either, as i have explained none of us are perfect but we try and strive.

Even the North Sydney Police were involved. When he was eight, on a Saturday afternoon, after he had been playing cricket at Forsythe Park, next to where we lived. He was off playing with some of his mates or so I thought.  When he has burst into our apartment breathless, to tell me the police were after him. I asked him why, and he replied "they caught me and Jimo grafittying the bus shelter, but I ran away" I replied "that;s a dumb thing to do,how do you know there coming here" he replied that "Jimo will tell them where I live".True to his word, within about five minutes the police were knocking on the front door. He scooted into his bedroom, hiding under the bed, I went and opened the door. There, crowding the front door were three large male cops and one female in blue uniform.I showed them where he was hiding and out he came, his blond face red as a beetroot. After being interrogated and admitting he was the other culprit, they said he was to be taken to North Sydney Police Station. The female cop took him out to the car,I then spoke to the other three and I asked them -" on the trip to the station, would you put him between two of you in the back seat and scare the shit of him, about what he has done" You have my permission to intimidate him and  and squeeze him a bit between the both of you in the back seat". They understood where I was coming from and I also asked them to throw him in a cell. They were good, they scared him enough, they thought throwing him in a cell was not necessary - we never had problems like that again.

 We were fortunate that we had some exceptional early times with Jazz. Where he was smothered in so much love and affection in his toddler years which has given him a foundation to know what great cuddles and kisses are like from both of us.The times when we managed the Country Comfort Property at Coffs Harbour, where he was adored by all the staff, where his his little blond head on top of his brown body would pop up around the resort in playing hide'nseek with his Mum and Dad,members of the staff or guests children.There was a serendipity in obtaining that job when Jazz was only a year old that gave great pleasure, bonding and nourishment to our relationship with our son.Still,single parenting is sure better than, no parenting.

Jazz adjusted quickly to Joey's, as going from Redlands where he had made so many friends of both sexes and where he was a star.Then to Joeys with a thousand boys and it's    great reputation of being the 'Rugby Nursery', was a big transition to make and to his credit he handled it smoothly and with out any complications.Made easier because one of his best mates from the Mosman Juniors, Richie Lamberton, also an only child, who was also a gun sportsman, started at Joey's at the same time. Often Catherine, Richies mother and I would share the car ferrying roles of taking to and picking up from the school.

I related to Joey's easily as having gone to Newington College, through from prep school to senior school. I knew the culture that prevailed at Sydney's GPS schools. How the old boy networks influenced and permeated these schools and over time I explained to him how to handle the situations as they arose, and they did.The sucking up to the sport' coaching staff was prevalent and influenced selections and was no different to what I had experienced when I was a schoolboy at Newington.

Jazz fortunately is very competitive and this assisted him with his initial transition. As an only child he revelled in the competitive companionship and the nature of the  all male testosterone driven atmosphere  that is inculcated in this  GPS environment .This would not suit a lot of kids who went to Redlands or similar co educational schools.Being an only child you yearn for friendship, mates and companions.

Being a Dad has been the most enjoyable endeavour I have undertaken. Hindsight is a bitch, wisdom is a virtue I wish I had a lot more of it.One of my few regrets is not having more children, it was not till Jazz and the parenting that went with it that I realised how much you love your children and how it would be such a buzz to have more.

Having Jazz was a surprise and when  I knew Lynne was pregnant I embraced the news. At the age of 45 I knew there were not going to be  more opportunities around the corner for fatherhood.From the time my son was born I fell in love with him and that love has increased over the years. We have experienced the highs and lows that continue with adulthood, the beautiful aspect with love for your child is that it never dissipates,as in my case with my relationships with women.

Now he has completed his education at Joeys which was an excellent school for him. He became  independent, learnt to cope with the discipline and strictures in place to manage  a large boarding school. The school enabled him to mix with a diverse cross section of students from many backgrounds and cultures that  this school promulgates.

He learnt that his actions have ramifications, that  have effects that don't necessarily go the way of expectations. Jazz for the first four years, was the champion 800 meter athlete for his year and was always selected in the rugby  and basketball A teams.

In the under sixteens he decided he did not want to run the 800 meters, when the athletic season came around. As he found the training, consisting of long distance road running through the suburbs around Hunters Hill, was not what he wanted to do any more.He found it lonely and dispiriting and this he explained to the Athletics Coach. Jazz found that for the rest of his rugby day at Joeys he was relegated to lower rugby sides, much to his disappointment.  

To his credit and determination he made basket ball his focus sport and was selected and  played with their Firsts Basket Ball Team for the last three years at the college. For this he was awarded his colours and honours blazer, which is no mean feat at a school that prides itself as one of the elite sporting schools in Australia.

Resort Hotel

Resort Hotel

Initially when i first started working at the Resort Hotel I was assigned an office next door to the General Manager, Robyn Stevens, which was fine at the time, as it was he that I worked closest with.At this stage there was no inkling that the parent company Dainford Holdings was having liquidity difficulties.

It took  weeks  to come to grips with a full scale working hotel, convention centre, shopping centre and office tower, that  was still a work in progress.Other factors added to the mix such as their construction company, head office and the hotel departments sometimes stymied progress.

Dainford Constructions still had their project manager and some trades on site, working from a house next door to the Hotel. This was a godsend as they filled me in on the building perspective time lines, rooms handovers, anticipated completion of areas, contacts with  service providers, dates when they expected levels completed .


Liaising  with Simon Wan the MD and head office of the Resort Hotel Group was a weekly sometimes daily occurrence  They had their offices in Bondi Junction and were managing another three hotels already operating and another being built on Bondi Beach. 

Getting to know the hotel's management team, their systems and head offices and the priorities which were all different :

•  Housekeeping, understandably had more bitches than most, the rooms being handed over were still not finished. 
• Marketing, from another point of view had theirs, such as  : "when can we start selling the executive suites ? "what about the  convention centre, when will the audio visual room be ready?" 
• Rooms Division were equally frustrated, as they were receiving the flack from dissatisfied guests who were complaining about cleanliness or services not working.
• Food & Beverage wanted a pastry kitchen installed near the main kitchen.
• Head office wanted all profit centers operationable and generating funds as quickly as possible, that was accelerated by pressure from the parent company Dainford Holdings.Who were being pressured by the bank ,Westpac.

 The group was starting to bleed as they now had another large weekly pay roll of hotel management and staff to pay, with little income as yet coming from the hotel.

Rooms were being brought into the hotel inventory,in fact they were all suites,two rooms instead of one, that faced Botany Bay which were prematurely sold to guests.The marketing department and the rooms division were not on the same page.The suites had not had a final 'construction clean' ; the sliding glass doors still had spattered concrete and paint on them, the tiles on the balconies had concrete and paint on them.Rooms smelt stale from water penetration,at that stage not detected, so the carpets were as hard as boards. No room had that pristine atmosphere you expect from a five star hotel,even though they were being sold at "construction rates" they were still not ready to be sold.This was an early indicator that there was  trouble ahead.

The assistant housekeeper Chitra Chandrasari was made my personal assistant.The first job we did was  a 'defects and rectification' check, of the one hundred and thirty suites being used by guests.Taking out five suites at a time, we employed a team to acid clean the windows, balconies, carpets and attend to finishes, till they were sparkling.Chitra would have the rooms assigned over and back in a professional and orderly manner.It was her job to liase between all the departments.Leaving a paper trail with the departments ; what rooms could be sold and what ones could not and when those would be available.

My office was on the ground floor and all the work to be done was on the top levels,
our time was wasted travelling between.  We organized one of the hotel suites which needed a lot of work to be done, in the mid level, to be used as our office.The jobs kept piling in. Fortunately the hotel had an engineering department of five tradesmen on the hotel payroll to which some work could be handed to.They similarly had so much to do, just keeping the services going, fine tuning the air conditioning was a mammoth task. Lifts kept breaking down of which there were five, as did the escalators that went from level two to the shopping centre. To be expected  in a newly constructed hotel. !!!

The builders did not have the same urgency as the hotel so we negotiated works  taken out of the builders scope of works and handed over to my department which consisted of me and Chitra. 

After we completed a "D&R" for rooms and suites, there was the rest of the complex, which was all hemorrhaging from leakage and water penetration.Including the restaurant, the health spa, the main bar.Marble tiles were spitting of columns and walls at the Porte Cochere and Lobby, air crew rooms needed double glazing, levels ten and eleven still were not completed, all being executive suites, penthouse bar not complete, car park required a cohesive signage and the pastry kitchen needed tiling and services, so the list continued.
These all required  three quotes, assembling a data base of trades and consultants and tabling jobs to be costed.

Three months after I had been there in March 1991, the hotel went into receivership with Dainford owing about $450 million, enter Prentice Parbury Barilla (PPB) receivers.Who provided another dynamic into  the managing, administration and rectification.Now, we all reported to PPB and ultimately the bank, which was Westpac. 

I explained to PPB at this stage that I would not stay as  the responsibilities I had signed up for had multiplied by 500%. We then negotiated another rate for myself and I continued on with the job, reporting to all three entities : Westpac, PPB and Hotel.

 Their representative,Rob Davis, took up residence in my old office and saw the dilemma with making the whole complex complete and a fully functioning entity.

Winter with rainy months was ahead.No sooner had we completed the rooms when word was coming back to us from housekeeping about rooms with water penetration. As mentioned previously, we  identified some one hundred or so rooms  where the balconies had to jackhammered up and a waterproof membrane laid and later new carpets.

 We steamed ahead over the next eighteen months. Completing the interiors to a standard of finish for a four star hotel, which is where  PPB positioned the hotel and the market to target.

Max Prentice enjoyed owning a hotel and decided on a make over for the two public levels and to change the external paintwork from apricot to a very pale green. This was no small job to be done, as the building had to be covered and scaffolding erected. He also was concerned about the interior decor and the bad press it was receiving so he retained interior designers to redo the restaurants, bars, demolish the lagoon, recarpet rooms and build a night club. At the end of '92 when the occupancy was approaching 75%. After two and half years of trading, the hotel was closed in January 93  for an $8 million makeover. 

Westpac found a new owner,  Accor a French group.

Southern Cross Hotel,Resort Hotel

Southern Cross Hotel,Resort Hotel

We returned to Sydney and moved into a townhouse in Neutral Bay. Jazz was now four and I was "shacking branches" looking for work.I had had enough of restaurants, bars, booze the late nights,  closing down the property, and putting everyone to bed, had taken its toll on the both of us and we were ready for a break.Our main priority was Jazz , who was enrolled into SCEGGS Redlands pre school at Cremorne.

I did some consulting work with Ian Ferrier of Ferrier Hodgson who were corporate recovery experts and who I had previously done some work for. Ian was personally advising the Fink Family in Melbourne, who owned the Southern Cross Hotel and  he retained me to do an interior audit on the property which in 1990 was looking tired and in need of a face lift. I went down there over  three weekends and reported on the  state and condition of the rooms, public spaces and the general atmosphere, ambiance and joie de vivre.

The Southern Cross was not an architectural gem like the Windsor Hotel or the Old Australian Hotel in Sydney. Built in 1962 in the modern style, it was a fifteen level building on Bourke Street with a plaza and shopping arcade on the bottom levels.However it had garnered it's place in Melbourne's Hospitality  History and society circles with the first Kosher Kitchen installed in the city. It had been home to every visiting celebrity to visit Melbourne during it's halcyon period,the Brownlow Medal count, Logie  Awards and society weddings.

 The property had a sombre atmosphere and needed "lightening up". It needed a major refurbishment , to shake it to its foundations. To re-image the property, to bring it up to date, to enable it to compete with the new ones opened or about to, such as the Grand Hyatt and the Rialto.

New concepts had to be contemplated for the restaurants and bars and front of house, with new structural changes to the plaza, shopping arcade and external facade.A contemporary decorative and creative brush was needed in the rooms and health centre with a fired up marketing strategy implemented and launched to the city. The only elements to be kept was the bones of the structure and the name.

I tend to think there was not the energy or the will with the owners to take on such a task.The chore of architects, interior designers and consultants elaborating on their schemes, ideas  with the fit out and construction costs  north of $50m,may have been to daunting ! Why not sell it and move on? Which is what they did. 

This was not the philosophy of my next consultancy, which was with the Resort Hotel Group (RHG) who managed then 'the Resort Hotel', now called Novotel on Botany Bay at Brighton Le Sands.

I was introduced to this group (RHG), just prior to it's parent company Dainford Holdings Limited going into the hands of the receivers Prentice Parbery and Barilla (PPB). Dainford Holdings Limited, a public company listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange, were large developers,constructing high rise home units  in Sydney and Surfers Paradise since the seventies.

During the nineties they  commenced  a hotel group - Resort Hotels - building four and five star hotels. The largest and most ambitious hotel in the group, was being built on the shores of Botany Bay close to the airport.'The Resort Hotel' had cost $165m to build,with three hundred rooms, convention centre, shopping centre and office tower and a three level underground carpark for 400 vehicles.

The hotel  had not been completed when I joined up.The two top levels of accommodation had not been fitted out and brought into the hotel's inventory. A defects and rectification programme  had not been installed .Only one level of car parking was in use. The hotel was open and receiving paying guests. 

My task was to assist with completing the hotel to an international hotel status.Employ and manage a maintenance team to rectify the defects throughout the complex.Negotiate and renew  preventative maintenance contracts with suppliers such as air conditioning, elevators,escalators, cleaners and form up the property service division for the complex. 

This job was the biggest 'can of worms' I had taken on. By the timeI had finished there were nearly as many consultants and tradespeople retained, fixing remedial work, as hotel employees !! My job was to be there for 3-4 months and then i was to go the Bondi Hotel and perform a similar task there. This was not to be. Due to shoddy workmanship, inappropriate interior design and fit out  and the take over by the receivers PPB. I ended up being involved from January '91 to June'93.

Though I had a job description, the hotel determined the work to be done. As over a period of time, one task led to another, to another, non of them envisaged in a newly built hotel or in my job description.

One was water penetration. The housemaids started to report on their room cleans, after storms - certain rooms had sodden carpets. Because of the design of the hotel,called a Ziggurat - a pyramidal structure with a flat top. The hotel caught all the prevailing winds and rainfall from all points of the compass. Being brutally exposed as the building was to Botany Bay - what happened was; the wind driven rain penetrated under the concrete hobs that the sliding glass doors were fitted onto.During construction they did not seal the balconies with a waterproofing membrane and there was little fall. .

The final count  was one  hundred and nineteen  rooms that had water penetration.
To rectify the problem, we had to jackhammer all the tiles up on the balconies, some were the size of Squash Courts, and lay a waterproofing membrane and then retile the balconies again. 

This was not as simple as that,  the hotel was marketing itself to all the airlines as a airport hotel. So  when the airline company came to inspect the hotel, all work had to stop. So as to give the impression the hotel construction works was completed.Then when the Aircrew stayed, some slept during the day, meaning - we could not jack hammer at those times. Hence the the job took three times longer than normal and cost more.


Another 'out of the blue' job was sound proofing. Forty five rooms were designated for air crew on the western side of the property. The hotel was in the flight path for inward flights to Kingsford Smith Airport, aircraft noise for aircrew had to be minimised so another $.5m had to be found to double glaze the rooms.

Another job not foreseen was the marble tiles spitting from the columns in the lobby. Sometimes I  would receive a call from  the receptionists at the front desk - who'd say "Tony there was a huge smash somewhere in the lobby" which was a two level atrium with a soaring ceiling.On investigation we would find smashed marble tiles on the marble floor. These tiles would have fallen about 25 feet off the columns and walls if they fell on someone could kill them. The reason for this occurring was according to the experts three fold - 

• The builders, which was Dainford Construction, had not cut construction and expansion joints through the building, and in the summer heat as the building moved, it was spitting these large beige marble tiles off the columns.
• Or the adhesive used by the tilers was faulty.
•  or there was subsidence in the building as it was built on sand. So we had to re tile all the columns of which there were dozens and all about six meters high and wall sections.

Each month the bank, Westpac and Max Prentice, the receiver, called a board meeting to which I reported to a wide eyed, astonished group of bankers. The new findings and additional costs for remedial works just kept on multiplying as more works kept on being pile onto my desk. 

Then there was the interior decor of the public areas on level three, such as the restaurants of which there were two :  the Baygarden  a two hundred seater that specialised in a la carte and buffet service, the other, I forget it's name, as it did not last long -. was fine dining and silver service. There was a large circular licensed bar which had a nautical theme.

The owners had imposed a European style of decor ; gilt mirrors, faux antique furniture,floral wallpapers, chandeliers, plastic statues, gilded ceiling cornices all which was at odds with the hotels location on Botany Bay and the name  Resort Hotel..which prompted Leo Schofield a Sydney food and hospitality critic to comment "... had I been told that the entire scheme had been the work of Nick Scali on an acid trip, I would not have been at all surprised"

Some of the criticism was a bit harsh.Architecturally the hotel had a good layout,the third level was quite dynamic  with it's indoor outdoor swimming pool,  health spa, gymnasium  tennis court, bars and restaurants.

There was a lagoon, which must have had a hundred full grown carp, presenting problems because the filter sytem installed could not handle their shitting, so it  would clog.The water instead of being clean and transparent was a shitty brown colour.Such a pity, as their were some beautifully coloured fish amongst them, unfortunately you could not see them due to the dark cloudy water. Eventually we had to get rid of the carp. They were sold locally to an aquarium in Rockdale. Mind you the faux rock mountain, which housed the filtration system was a bit "Disney Land".

On the second level was the convention center, function rooms, ballroom and breakout area  In total the center could accommodate 500 people. These facilities became well used by the business fraternity and the ethnic populations in the surrounding areas for weddings.

Another problem area were the car parks which were under the complex, level three car park was never used in the time I was there . It was below the water table of Botany Bay and was underwater the whole time, constantly leaking with water pumps going twenty four hours per day. Many consultants tried to seal the walls from leaks but none succeeded while I was there.There was a South African that specialised in water proofing gold mines in Johannesburg. They injected a hot bituminous solution into the walls, with the catalytic effect that water has with heat - it's drawn to it- the water was supposed to be drawn to the substance which dammed the the water flow. I don't think they were succesful.

Several consultants were retained for advice and opinions during the rectification program. There was on engineering group there for over a year who was retained by PPB that were responsible for the shopping center and office tower and we often crossed paths, as there would be parallel problems and solutions. 

Another consultant,Rogan Moody who was a Forensic Architect  was brought in to assist with combating water penetration.After he had completed his inspection of the property he alerted us to other conditions starting to appear, such as : concrete cancer he said was starting to show in places,paint was already peeling from the exterior,rust was appearing on balcony balustrades,  there were no construction or expansion joints  through the building. Rogan considered it, "the shoddiest of builds he had seen in 25 years of being an architect". In his final analysis which went for seven foolscap pages, he wrote: that he thought they should demolish the building and sue the builders and start again. It was a bit difficult to sue the builders as they were all part of the same group. 

I  tabled his report at the next board  meeting.The Bank and receivers did not take kindly to his advice, as it was not the direction they had in mind, for remedying the problem.

 

Palm Beach,Son & Heir, Coffs Harbour

Palm Beach, Son & Heir, Coffs Harbour

After "Castaways" was completed Lynne and I decided that we did not wish to stay any longer in Far North Queensland. I had been up there for nearly nine months this time and before then working on Tuna Towers and running Banrnacle Bills another two years. I felt that it was to far out of the mainstream and we flew back to Sydney and rented a friends house in Palm Beach.

I love the Northern Beaches of Sydney. That stretch of beaches from Manly to Palm Beach is one of my favourite parts of the world, where I often return to.I have travelled so much and lived in so many different places, most I have enjoyed immensely. Outside the Northern Beaches other places I could easily go back to and  live : are the Bahamas, San Francisco, parts of Mexico and parts of Italy.In Sydney I gravitate towards the Northern Beaches. 

Why? The surf , the beaches, the hills and valleys, inland waterways, smell of the salt in the air, the sound of the surf,the different geographic characteristics of the beaches.Then there is the ocean, on a warm summers day  the ocean is so clear blue and clean, that besides swimming in it, you could nearly drink. It feels so good when you dive in and swim out to catch a wave. The sensational feeling of the salt and water drying on you from the heat of the sun when you get out of the water.The best is when you have spent the whole day on the beach, surfing and baking in the sun and the shower at the end of it all and getting into some clean clothes and then an icy cold beer.

Also I have been going there since early childhood.When I was at school I first joined Bilgola Surf Club for one season, then Bungan Surf Club the next, where I got my Bronze Medallion for Life Saving . Mum and Dad would drive me down to the beaches or I'd hitch down from Lane Cove over the summer holidays. Often I'd camp overnight at the clubhouse for the weekend.

Bungan Beach was more remote than other beaches as it was not accesible by transport.There were beautiful sheer cliffs and headlands at either end of the beach which was wide and rose into dunes before going vertical.You  you could not drive down to the beach,the car had to be parked on the road at the top and you had to walk down steep tracks to the beach, so it has remained isolated.Except for the energetic who walk down and then have the half kilometer climb/ walk back up, which deters a lot of people.

Once when I had been at Bungan Surf Club for awhile,  training for the bronze medallion, which qualified you to save people in difficulties in the surf. I was the youngest in the club about seventeen, they diid not have a Nippers, only juniors and seniors. Another junior - Steve Reynolds and myself were given the task of buying  "a keg",which was eighteen gallons of beer and taking it back to the club,  from the "Newport Arms" the local pub. 

The Bungan clubhouse in1958  was one of those Quonset Huts - half round on a wooden platform and made of corrugated iron.  At the bottom of a very, very steep bush track, on the verge of the sand.  On the left side  going down the track there are houses and their gardens, on the other side of the track  was just thick bush, mainly impenetrable lantana. All up length  was about half a kilometer straight down. It was a patchwork of concrete ,bitumen and dirt .Over the years It had been eroded by rain and looked like a watercourse, which it was when it pissed down with rain.How people got to their houses during wet weather, was their business.

We both unloaded the eighteen gallon keg off the ute at the top of the track and then tried to figure how to man handle the keg down to the bottom.We grabbed either end of the keg and walked it like that for a while, but it was not comfortable, as the track underfoot was uneven with strange  big steps, that made it difficult when your trying to handle a big cumbersome aluminium keg. On the bush side of the track it was less used and more even so we decided to roll it gently, trying not to stir up the beer to much. We had achieved about a quarter of the distance when we both lost concentration and the keg started to roll on its own course and as we were behind it it was hard to stop and it got away from us. Then once away it took on a life of its own and just bounded down the track in big bounds, fortunately there was no one coming up the track, as the keg would have wiped them out. As it got up more steam it changed course and went off the track into the bush and then into the lantana, never to be seen again.

We had lost it, and it was never found,the lantana was to thick and after the keg disappeared into its midst, it left no track,the bushes all sprung back after letting the keg through, it was like nothing had gone in there. We could't believe our eyes, one minute  the two of us  are struggling with this aluminium monster, the next minute it's off into bushes and whooshca vanished.

The reaction by the older  guys was mixed, some were pissed off, others thought it was very funny when we told them what had happened and they inspected where we believed the keg to be.Others  tried to  retrieve it from it 's hiding place, to no avail as they needed a front end loader to clear the scrub and lantana which was thick and prickly.

So now I was back in my old stamping grounds on the Peninsular, we realised working from here had its difficulties, however it gave us the opportunity to integrate back into the life of the city and to start connecting with people.As it was winter the Peninsular is not at its best.  Lynne found she was pregnant which was a surprise for us both. So we moved to Neutral Bay to be closer to North Shore Hospital where Lynne had our baby boy.

He had been born for a week or so and we could not come up with his name, we wanted his name  to be short and contemporary. One night I was woken up by an inner voice telling me to call him "Jazz". I didn't  tell Lynne for awhile, then I told her and she liked the name and with further assurances from other friends, Jazz Alexander Mathers was born on the 13 June 1987.

He was a great little guy very fair like his mother and with amazing muscle definition in his arms and legs, he had a beautiful little body from an early age with white hair. I was smitten with him right from the start and had no problem handling jobs like changing nappies and washing him and looking after him. He was always a happy little boy with a lovely smile a great little laugh. I used to tickle him and he would scream with laughter, then I would stop and he'd say "do it again dad". Lynne was keen to recommence work and I was happy to be at home caring for"Jazz".We had not discussed having a child but when it happened it was all very natural and seemed so quick and easy, that when he came along it was like he was always there.

Through an acquaintance we were both offered a job managing a property owned by Country Comfort in Coffs Harbour. Country Comfort was started by Lend Lease as there Hospitality Division and they had  fifteen or so properties in N.S.W.The one at Coffs Harbour they had recently rebuilt with a new restaurant and a new wing of rooms, so off we went with Jazz to start a new life in Coffs.

The opportunity of working, living and bringing up our son in one location was  fortunate and we appreciated the time we had to spend with our son. As one of us was always around him while the other one handled managing the property which had a hundred rooms, restaurant, function rooms,swimming pool, tennis courts and extensive gardens.

Catering to the traveller,families on holidays or short stays,middle management representatives the property was extremely busy.  The refurbishment and rebuild had been done to accomadate the extra business expected due to the Brisbane World Expo in 1988 which went for six months from April to October .Expected also was additional business from  the increased traffic  on the Pacific Highway over that period .Country Comfort being proactive  had sold out the rooms to Coach Companies that stopped over, with sometimes up to 100 people per night. The marketing for this was all handled by their Sydney Head Office and was the first time that I had worked for a boss since my early twenties. In fact it was a bit of hurdle, when we went for our interview, as the then GM wondered "if I would be able to take direction". 

They were all good and there to help and for the first two weeks very accomadating as we settled in and learnt their systems and modus operandi. The marketing, food and beverage and finance directives all coming from their head office.

As managers we handled the day to day week to week management of the property and the staff. Most that were there  were very professional and well trained from the housemaids, receptionist, chefs, waiters, groundsmen and knew the ropes so we did not have to invent the wheel - just keep it turning. Occasionally we might have to find someone new. but as in most provincial areas staff tend to stay in the one place for much longer than cities.

We were also fortunate that my parents had moved up to Port Macquarie the year before so they were only a hours drive away and often used to come and visit and see their grandson who they adored, often they would take Jazz back with them to Port for a week and return with him.That used to be such a buzz, seeing his excitement when he returned and his big smiles, Jazz seemed to grow so fast and developed so quickly one minute he was a baby the next he was running around the restaurant playing hide and seek as a little toddler, with the restaurant full of paying customers, though none minded.

That used to be a game he liked to play - our residence was on the first level, over the kitchen, of the new wing recently built and the stairs down, filed into the corridor that led into the restaurant. As Jazz got older Lynne would feed him in the restaurant and then take him upstairs and stay with him and put him to sleep, or thought she had and then she would come down to the restaurant to have dinner. Often we would see this little white head peer around the corner and there he be. Once he saw that we had spotted him he would then run around the restaurant with me or Lynne after him.

The Brisbane Expo was our baptism of fire, it kept the occupancy rate at 100%, for six months with no let up. The house was full, the restaurant was full and the function rooms which we used for the coaches was full.Breakfast and dinner seven days a week kept us all on our toes. We prepared a special menu for the coaches and they were fed in the function rooms freeing the restaurant for a la carte cooking and service.

After expo finished there was no respite as the Big Banana which was next door commenced construction on plans approved to revitalise it as a Horticultural Theme Park and we were inundated by the consultants who were advising the owners. Hence our occupancy kept  staying up  and kept Head Office happy with further 100% tallies  for several more months.

We also had many families who would stay for extended period over the school holidays. There was one country family that had three young girls, aged from six to about ten. The girls all fell in love with Jazz and used to come up to reception to see Lynne and ask was Jazz awake and if so could they look after him for the morning. They would take him down to the swimming pool or the spa and keep him entertained or him them for the morning and return him to Lynne or myself. That family or the girls loved Jazz so much that the following year they returned for another lot of holidays and looking after Jazz.

After we had been there for about eighteen months Head Office entered the property into NSW Tourism Awards and was listed as one of the five top facilities for family accommodation in NSW.  Lynne and I flew down to Sydney to the award night at the Wentworth Hotel and joined the Country Comfort table and then on stage to receive the award for the Best Family Motel in Australia.

 They say " good things happen to those who wait" and in appreciation for our good work they flew us to Tahiti for a ten day holiday.In respect to the award as with most of them there are always many people who contribute and ours was no different. We had some great staff,our two key members was Dave Rose who was the chef and Frankie who was in charge of reception. That's what management is about having top key people in important responsible slots, where they don't fuck up under pressure.Frankie was there when we arrived and Dave was our selection.

We did not make any great improvements to Country Comfort, except in the bar area, we increased their top shelf range which was very limited when we arrived and we were responsible for a liqueur trolley that did the rounds of tables after dinner was over and they had them installed through out the group.I bought some Louis xv Cognac and their F&B manager said "You won't sell that in a month of Sundays" I was reordering that month, mind you I was quite partial to a drop.

We helped them establish the property in the local sense and attracted a good spread of locals and travellers who became regulars in the restaurant.We had friends who would drop by and stay others  like Bob Graham and Bob la Pointe who invested in the area and it's commercial opportunities.

Jazz had the best time as a toddler growing up in that atmosphere he was loved by all the staff and was ready for preschool. After a couple of years living and working together Lynne and I were testing our relationship and I think Country Comfort had got the best out of us  and we the best out of them. Sydney beckoned so we moved back and I started up a  consulting business specialising in Hospitality Projects.