Port Douglas, Lost Luggage and Lesson Learned

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Dawn, 4 Mile Beach, Port Douglas

As is  becoming something of a tradition, we’ve returned to Port Douglas for a couple of weeks of warmth and relaxation, and thankfully, so has our luggage. Eventually.

Getting to Port Douglas from Adelaide involved approximately 4.5 hours of flying, across 2 flights. A direct flight other than by a budget carrier wasn’t available.

From Cairns airport it’s an hour’s drive north, along the picturesque coast to Port Douglas. It’s nearly 3,000 kilometres by road, a solid 32-hour drive—long enough to remind you just how vast  Australia really is. To put it in perspective: a flight of the same duration from London would land you in Athens, Corfu, Venice or Lisbon. For us, it’s simply a journey to another state that shares a border with, our home state, South Australia—albeit at the far end of it.

That’s part of the charm of Australia. It’s huge, and every corner is different. Adelaide was a chilly 7C when we arrived at the airport for our early morning flight; Port Douglas greeted us a half a day later with a humid 28C. No wonder Far North Queensland is such a draw card during the winter months. Continue reading →

10 years of ‘What’s Next’, I’m ready for the next chapter.

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Richmond Bridge, Tasmania, with my favourite person

As I prepared to retire from the professional service firm I’d been privileged to be a partner of for more than 20 years, I embarked on a program very much assisted by Tim and Michael.

Michael made me think, and Tim actively challenged me about what’s next. Through many sessions, initially with my favourite person joining me and then just one-on-one, Tim forced me to challenge myself. Amongst the many moments, one sticks in my memory. We were at a retreat ( my firm referred to it as Pinnacle, but for me it was always God’s Waiting Room) for partners and spouses designed to prepare us for leaving the firm and my favourite person and I were sent off to discuss an aspect of my leaving the firm. As usual, we defaulted to discussing the children. Tim checked in and said he’d be very annoyed if we were discussing the children the next time he came by instead of what we were supposed to be chatting about. It was a wake-up call and set me on the ‘What’s Next’ path.

I’ve been on that path for more than a decade. This blog, started in 2013, is just one element. Like my reading of Herminia Ibarra’s Working Identities, it came out of one of the many coaching conversations with Tim.

So, as I click through more than ten years of ‘What’s Next,’ I feel like another change is before me.

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Remembering Melanie

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Melanie Dead: Singer Performed at Woodstock and Sang 'Brand ...

In an article on Quilette, Dave Thompson asks, Who remembers Melanie?
Well, I do!

Melanie, born in Queens, New York, in 1947, died in late January 2025.

It’s only appropriate that I post my obituary.

Melanie has always been a favourite of mine, albeit that in an Australian context, I suspect her fame is pretty much limited to Brand New Key, which reached No. 1 on our charts in 1974. It was a global chart success, but it’s always been her version of The Rolling Stones’, Ruby Tuesday, that has been my favourite. I have always preferred it to the original.

In addition to Ruby Tuesday, other favourites of mine are Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), apparently inspired by the Woodstock concert, Beautiful People, What Have They Done to My Song Ma, and The Nickel Song. However, she has an extensive discography, which over the years I have kept coming back too.

I was fortunate to see her on one of her Australian tours at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre in the latter half of the 1970s. I was at University and went with a great friend with whom I shared many evenings listening to, dare I say, obsessing over music and attending concerts. There were so few we didn’t enjoy. Melanie’s concert was no exception. 

I only have one of her records on vinyl, the 1978 release Phonogenic—Not Just Another Pretty Face. Aint that the truth, she had a wonderful voice.  I also fondly remember visiting London’s  Oxford Street HMV Store and buying one of her CDs. I remember bouncing out of the shop with a massive grin that I’d managed to find it, much to the bemusement of my favourite person. With the benefit of Spotify, her discography is all available. I have to say that I listened to the record while preparing this post.

For most, Melanie’s time in the Sun was the 1970s, starting with a fortuitous appearance at Woodstock where the audience raised candles and cigarette lighters (that’s a sign of the times). While others have claimed to have been the first to have this happen, her Woodstock appearance was the first recorded occasion.  A Google search says Melanie was in glorious female company, as she and Janis Joplin and Joan Baez were the only solo women who appeared at Woodstock.

We are poorer for her passing.

RIP Melanie Safka

Photo Source – The Hollywood Reporter, GAB Archive/Redferns

Tasmania and 45 years

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Ships anchor – Narrinya

A very long time ago and seemingly a world ago, my favourite person and I had our honeymoon in Tasmania. A few months ago, we decided that as my favourite person hadn’t been back since, we would have a week in Hobart to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

We spent a few days in Melbourne on the way over as there are no direct flights from Adelaide to Hobart, and we had some family matters to attend to. I quite like Melbourne, but my favourite person isn’t so keen on the place. She finds it dreary and dark, however, she finds the shopping to her taste and the food good.

The former was a bonus, as when she opened her case in Melbourne she found she had left her more formal attire at home!

” Well played”, was the comment my daughter made.

It certainly opened up the opportunity for some new purchases in one of Australia’s best shopping locations. A dress from Scanlon and Theodore and another from Jac and Jack fixed the matter.

A bonus of one of the purchases was a complimentary pass to The LUME, a digital art experience around Van Gogh. It was magical. Set to music was a kaleidoscope of moving pictures telling the story of Van Gogh’s art. Just fabulous.

Van Gogh’s bedroom with a couple of additions, LUME

Melbourne’s food scene is also excellent and we had a couple of dinners. I’ll Barco was spectacular, and the Punch Lane Wine Bar was an opportunity to have great food and lovely wine.

Melbourne’s weather is famously changeable, as our experience once again confirmed. Fortunately, we had stopped for a drink on Southbank.

From Melbourne it was off to Hobart. Continue reading →

I’ll have another glass of Pinot Noir, please

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What is your favorite drink?

I have written more than once about my growing interest in wine. These days it’s somewhere between a passion and obsession.

As a young adult, I had friends who were wine lovers. One of my friends got his first job as a winemaker when visiting my home. My relationship with him has opened up many opportunities to sample some great wines as well as chat about wine more generally. Then through business living in South Australia, Australia’s largest wine producer, I had a number of clients in the wine industry. All of these contributed to an interest, but it really was my PhD that investigated the non-financial characteristics of family wine businesses that moved wine to the forefront.

Through my PhD, and before that my Honours project, I had the opportunity to visit a number of wineries, both in South Australia and Australia. I also took the opportunity to meet and discuss wine with families in Italy and the USA. Their stories were fascinating. Their connection to the land, a sense of place, a connection to their community, as well as an emotional connection, led to the title of my thesis – The story is in the bottle. The title was borrowed from an interview I conducted in my Honours project with the managing director of a multigenerational family business which sadly no longer exists.

My PhD gave me access to family stories as well as, the opportunity to go back stage at a number of Australia’s family wine businesses. Some of these family wine businesses are household names with generations of history, while others are early on their journey.

The result was a desire to learn more about wine itself.

Continue reading →