New Endeavours

New Endeavours

In July 22, 2013 I moved my place of residence to share an apartment with Claudia 
Santamicone in Dee Why. We had been going out for a couple of years and then split up, as she was of the mind that she was not inclined to a permanent relationship. Later at Keith Dudley's eightieth birthday we reconnected, which led to a discussion about sharing a new apartment she recently moved into at Dee Why on the Northern Beaches and on  my inspection I decided to move. After nine years of living in Mosman,  most of that time sharing the  place with my son Jazz, it was time for a change.  Jazz had moved out a year before, and I had found living on my own can be lonely sometimes. The idea of living with Claudia I processed for a few days  and then decided to do it. 

Processing is a one of many "buzz' words presently in vogue. In real speak it means having a good think about what your doing, weighing up the pros and cons and then coming to a decision. One of the positives in making me decide was to "get out of my comfort zone" and the "allure of the Northern Beaches" of Sydney. With summer coming, the beaches are where I like to spend time and another positive is I had more friends living in this part of Sydney, than in Mosman.

At time of writing I have now been here for three months and in that time I have had sufficient time to analyse , was it a good move, yes is the answer. I like living with Claudia, I like living with a lady, I like her energy, her cleanliness and her feminine qualities and her company.

Having been living and bringing up my son, over a ten year period, through his teens and early manhood, it is such a different trip to living with Claudia.The other day I picked him up over a weekend and he decided he wanted to go for a swim in a pool in Neutral Bay. So he undressed and went for a quick swim and I was assailed,  shortly after him leaving his clothes in the car,  with an intolerable stink - it was his shoes and sox, they stunk to high hell and I threw them out of the car. Those are the things I don't miss, the constant mess that leaves a trail of clothes and debris through the apartment, I can now live without, the rawness that goes with a lot of the young as they find their way in adolescence and growing up.Those  bickerings, over coming home late, when they have to be at work and the getting them up in the morning, knowing if you don't there will be repercussions with their work superiors and thinking- ' let him sleep in  and bugger the consequences'. His mates, who after rugby and then a night on the piss, who lived to far away to get home, would flake out for the night on a leather sofa, that Steve Warr had made for me, in the morning it would stink of piss, a present for the hospitality.

All in the past but so much part of bringing up a son.

So now I have "moved on" another "buzz" phrase, everyone's "moving on" from me to to the recent Prime Ministers as there has been a recent election and the  Labour Government ousted the incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillard who had to "move on" and make way for Kevin Rudd who was installed in her place in the  hope of preventing the incumbent government losing the election. To no avail as they  lost, so he had to "move on".

So I am in good company in my, my "moving on" and in with Claudia.

 Whilst "moving" I came across an old document that i had written on "Beach Culture Museum" and decided to take it up again, as I was  now in residence in the Northern Beaches, which was at the hart of it. I was discussing this concept  with an old friend Tony Flook, on the beach, where else! He said that i should develop it and he would introduce me to Jean Hay who is the Mayor of Manly, which he did. 

I rang her  and made an appointment and floated the idea of a Beach Culture Museum in Manly. The concept is a combination of ; the surfing movement and fashion labels, like Mambo, Quicksilver  Ripcurl, Billabong and Speedo, that have piggybacked on the surfing movement and became global brands. Those two in tandem with the SurfLifesaving movement and the environment and coastal protection of the Northern Beaches, make up the Beach Culture Museum. 

 Jean seemed  smitten with the the idea when I suggested that I would like to take over a facility on North Head. She had recently been appointed to the board of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, that managed all the military facilities, that were now available and provided me the contact details of the CEO Geoff Bailey.

I contacted him and after a conversation on the telephone in which he thought, it was a large undertaking, he agreed for me to drop off the conceptual overview.  I had compiled and developed  a sizeable document, when I first conceived the concept, back in 2009. Now, I had a full colour document of 29 pages, I researched and downloaded some forty coloured images and had Louise Nangla, a graphic designer, format the document and then had it printed in full colour.

From conversation with Jean Hay who asked me not to mention  that I had been told information; the Barracks were being negotiated for conversion into a three star hotel, which would be a perfect fit for them, as they were used for accommodation for the gunners.The Barracks I thought would be a suitable location  for the museum - as there is a ballroom, mess hall and meeting rooms which could be the exhibit spaces.I said that to Geoff and also that a museum as an added attraction to a hotel could work well. I wrote a letter accompanying the document with my profile. listing the small grpup who were interested to date in the project :·    

•   Mark Walhimer, museum planner, San Francisco.
• Ian Bracegirdle, art director for collections and exhibits, Melbourne.I
•   Jeevan Nangla, Black+White interior architects and graphic design, Sydney.
• Peter Kemp, principal Macpherson + Kelley Lawyers, Sydney, advising re formation of foundation.
•   Mike Hickey and Tony Flook philanthropists.

Stating until a facility is located, it is still an embryo of an idea and precludes:

1.Contacting the many organizations and individuals for participation and collections.

2.The compilation of a feasibility study / business model.

I will be interested in his response next week.

His response was thus:

He thought it was not a good fit with the North Head site for the following reasons:

1          1.    The site is somewhat remote from the beach at Manly.

2.    He could not think of a suitable space amongst the remaining buildings for this use.

He went on to write re the main barracks building - ‘They would be reluctant to make a commitment to a partial use of the building (such as the ballroom) until we have secured an appropriate tenant for the whole building and have a full understanding of their spatial requirements’.

I agree that the main barracks building would be a good fit for a three star hotel operator, which I mentioned in my letter to Jean Hay.

I wrote : I would leave this thought with you. Hotel operations work well with other attractions.

Maybe there is the opportunity to revisit the “Surf Museum” concept.

Once you have selected the operator and they have determined their space requirements and they find certain spaces irrelevant such as the ballroom.

The idea is flexible and modifiable, thinking about it further since I completed the document. I don’t think the word ‘Museum’ is the right word to describe the concept. It was always my intention for the concept to be more hospitality and entertainment driven, coupled with food and beverage and retail which would have been articulated in the business model.

I tend to agree with your points – ‘ a bridge to far ’ and the struggle for museums to be sustainable.

I have also written to Jean Hay, thanking her for the introduction and informing her of the outcome re Geoff Bailey's letter in response.

After Publishing

It was so satisfying to receive from Amazon - 'Congratulations your files are printable' and as such, I can now say amongst other things, that I am the author of a book - "The Grape Escape Story".

At this juncture I have to thank Peter Richardson, who was the first person to mention to me about writing a book and kept encouraging me all the way through and enabled the steps to be taken in publishing a paperback and  Ebook. Without his encouragement and help "the Grape Escape Story" would have never have been written.

I now await with a certain trepidation feedback from readers. As I wrote and did the editing of the book which is apparently; in the 'writing and publishing world' - is not the way to go! It's out there, now - and if a publisher wants to pick it up and have it edited - that's open for discussion. Having completed the exercise I have such respect for writers and editors. Writers, for the tenacity of completing a body of works and editors for the determination of keeping the flow and the detail in the  micro.

Would Ido it again ? I don't find the task daunting, there is an idea festering in the mind, however the marketing side of the equation is the predominant task at hand - trying to sell the book is the task at hand for the present. From research carried out to date, I don't think I' m going to be spending to much time on the marketing, as I can see that unless you have a best seller on your hands, there is no money in writing books.

I have found a letter from my grandmother, amongst my fathers papers, written on a letter head - "Phoenix Hotel" Puerto Santa Cruz, Rep. Argentina. Dated January 25th 1920. It was written to her sister Kathleen about living in Patagonia. It was not in an envelope, but in The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Track Chart, that when unfolded -  showed the map of the world, with the track of the  trip she had taken from UK down the coast of Brazil and Argentina to Santa Cruz in southern Argentina.Which is where she had written the letter from.

The letter was about her giving birth to "Mathers No.2 and apologising that he was not called Jimmy, as he was already christened Dennis I hope you approve". This was my fathers brother, who was eighteen months younger than my father.She then goes on about sending her sister a piece of Dad's hair from his first cutting and how his final four double teeth are cutting through and making him a "bit peevish".

She continues on with some of her recent experiences, whilst her husband, my grandfather Harry, was away looking for I presume work, she was offered accommodation at one of his friends farm. On the way, going through what they called the 'sand pampas' the car which was called an Overlander caught fire, and it was three days later that they arrived.

The farm was called "Cerro Redondo,"her words - " a delightful farm, a big bungalow of 12 large rooms a glorious kitchen with tiled floor and a white and brass stove about eight foot long. They had cows and cream separators and butter making machines, one of the finest farms out here". Whilst there, they heard of rumours there were bandits in the area and were told to be vigilant and hide any arms and valuables, after ten days their vigilance had slipped. One of the farm hands spied what appeared to be a dust-storm approaching across the Pampas, as it came closer it  revealed; some three hundred men on horseback and a few automobiles, heralding the arrival of the bandits previously rumoured to be in the vicinity.

The bandits stayed at the farm for a day and a night, stealing provisions and stores, two automobiles, a about two hundred horses and kidnapping the owner, who they were to hold for ransom. They departed for their hideout in the foothill of the Andes Mountains. Before reaching their hideout they were apprehended by the Army, who executed the leaders and returned the owner unharmed. My grandmother said they did not molest or threaten the women, however she slept that night with a sharp stiletto under her mattress.

With this letter was another letter, headed Santa Cruz, March 1st 1921 and was addressed  and started as the following-
"Dear Mrs Mathers. Yesterday afternoon while we were partaking of the cup that cheers, but does not inebriate,  your hubby showed me your pat on the back from the King of England, honourable mention etc. We all rejoiced with him re his noble wife". The writer was Eleanor Lewis, I presume an English friend of my grandparents, who also lived in Southern Argentina. Who wrote further; how their generation of women, who have the opportunity of education was producing heroines such as Edith Cavell and were proving themselves to be the equal of men in every branch of thought.

This congratulatory letter, was brought about by my Grandmother's actions, who before she married, was an officer (Administrator) in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) during The  War of 1914-1918. Her group were posted to France to serve. Where she was wounded by  shrapnel on her hand and was mentioned in a Despatch by Field Marshall Sir Douglass Haig on 16th March 1919 for gallant and distinguished services in the field. Commanded by the King to record his Majesties high appreciation of the services rendered. signed by Winston Churchill - Secretary of State for War.

My grandmother was an amazing person, my father held her in such high regard.  It was not long after that letter, that she lost her husband from wounds suffered in the Great War. How she coped with a newly born son and another of toddler age in a remote outpost location as Southern Patagonia defies belief. Dad told me she had no support and her only option was to return to England.

Fortunately once there her whereabouts became known, to a past suitor who eventually became husband number two and she became the wife of Arthur Gibbons.  He owned flour mills and was a chartered accountant, from whom she had another son, my step uncle Brian Gibbons.According to my father, both  he and his brother Den had a privileged upbringing going to Palmers School, one of the oldest in Britain. They lived in a large house in Engayne Gardens, Upminister, which backed onto a golf course and  employed a gardener and maid that helped my grandmother bring up the three boys. Holidays were spent travelling Europe and later Dad was employed after laeving school by his firm.

That was not in Dad's scheme of destiny and after further work experiences with Lever Brothers he decide on leaving England and Australia beckoned as adventure and new territory to explore for a young Brit.

The arrival of Dad in Australia and working on a farm in Maxwell, Northern New South Wales  and then joining up in the Australian Infantry Forces and marrying my mother all within a period of twelve months, I have written about in my book 'the Grape Escape Story'.