Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining this brunch with Professor Muhammad Yunus. Please join me in acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation – the traditional custodians of this land. We pay respect to elders, past and present, and we also extend our welcome to all indigenous people present.
Photos from the wedding of the year, Karl Howard and Amanda Kate Easson at St Mary’s Cathedral, then at the Museum of Contemporary Arts on 19 May 2018.
Between words:
Suspended
Like a gull’s wing
Cupping the wind
Before the bird
As if in thought
Swoops and snatches
A morsel in
Casual vigour.
In warm December 1792
the Atlantic sails. Port Jackson
wails and Bennelong’s family,
Yemmerrawanne’s too,
watch ’til the ship’s a speck
beyond view.
The rumours, all true?
Was your character all surface?
Or were you a clear picture
of fountaining moods?
Green-blue sea of promise:
I bob to its surge,
waist then face submerged,
salty water up my nose,
lips a Plimsoll line,
toes a gimbal on sand
ready for the ocean.
Published on 1 December 2017 on Linkedin; speech delivered on 29 November 2017 at the 2017 ASFA Conference at the Sydney Convention Centre.
Philippe Paquet’s Simon Leys Navigator Between Worlds is the first book length biography of the author, sinologist, and critic Pierre Ryckmans (1935-2014) who published under the pseudonym Simon Leys. A splendid achievement, on literary, philosophical, historical, and interpretative perspectives, this is arguably the finest ever account of any Australian.
Thank you, Gerard and all, for the opportunity to briefly speak to you and your colleagues on the Australia Defence Association (ADA).
Wide-eyed and hopeful, my youngest daughter, Amanda, asked me last month: “how do you succeed in business?” Immediate, stock responses came to mind. Focus, work hard, meditate on the niche you can excel at, contemplate innovation, seek out mentors, and all the rest.