Difficult times ... and an escape hatch!

Fish bone, bowel blockage by adhesions, retirement and closure of clinic after 38 years. 

Dear colleagues,

In October 2021 at a siblings’ reunion dinner I swallowed one or possibly two fish bones with my first excited mouthful.  After long Covid lock-down and finally with family again I suddenly developed the dreaded sensation of a sharp foreign body in my throat.  And when it did not go away I booked myself in for a gastroscopy three days later at Bowral Private Hospital.  However, to my surprise, nothing was found.  Subsequent examination at St Vincent's in Sydney was equally unremarkable.  CT scan, MRI scan (a punishing experience) and subsequent oesophagoscopy under anaesthetic were also all normal yet I knew there was still a bone (or two) there in the lower gullet or upper chest region.  Eventually, by the middle of January this year, the foreign body seemed to have either dissolved or moved on.  But I had more to worry about. 

The 'normal' rigours of running a solo medical practice were added to by the pandemic.  Apart from the daily threat to staff and patients, I was obliged to enter every patient's details on Service NSW Covid-safe web site by the close of trading, even on my 'days off'.  Getting 95% of our patients vaccinated was a challenge which we were also equal to.  Yet the enjoyment of running the practice was considerably impacted by all of these contingencies as well as the requirements of registration, accreditation, fire compliance, pest report, safety drills, etc.  So I decided to pull the plug and tell my staff it was a very sad day but we would be closing down.  Telling the patients was also tough.  Prior to that I had an assurance from the owner of a nearby large addiction clinic that they could manage to take most or all of our 150 opiate maintenance patients. 

An old adage is that people often develop illness, injury or other misadventure straight after retiring.  So it happened that just 8 weeks later I developed a bowel obstruction requiring urgent laparotomy with a few weeks recuperation, somewhat cramping my style and confidence.  I thank the staff of Bowral District Hospital for magnificent care from the Emergency Ward to the operating theatres, intensive care and general wards.  Night staff especially were caring and prepared to go the extra distance in customised advice and support.  It must be especially exacting looking after fellow health workers and I was not an 'easy' patient by any means. 

So at some point I need to look back on my early general practice and expanding addiction cohort after I became one of the first NSW GPs to prescribe methadone.  One of my early patients was a doctor from a medical family.  He had been debarred over some drug use matter and never practised again, despite doing well on methadone for many years.  He joined the church and became a vital volunteer yet he lacked the confidence to return to medicine despite my encouragement.  He taught me a great deal about addiction when there were few sources. 

An elderly musician and composer retired to the Redfern flats and became my patient for her last years.  One morning on a home visit she presented me with a three page piano piece written in my honour.  One look at the manuscript showed it was far too difficult for my modest keyboard talents and it was not for another 25 years that I heard it played by a professional.  It is absolutely charming, original and possibly even an 'Alter ego' of myself (which was its title).  [contact me if you wish to hear it] 

Other remarkable events happened with regularity in our practice, many of which one could not predict in a century of guesswork.  Unfortunately many such details may give away identities and are too personal to be revealed.  One very early (1980s) GP patient was a truck driver who inadvertently caused a massive traffic jam by blocking lanes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  He just walked in that afternoon and revealed what had happened and that he needed a certificate for a few days off.  His truck was in a mess yet he was remarkably untouched, at least physically. 

Successes?  What is a success regarding addiction?  Survival is pretty important.  Keeping out of trouble, avoiding harms, looking after families, work, study and social integration are also admirable. 

The majority of our patients were on social security benefits and did some family responsibilities, part time work, hobbies or volunteer work.  Yet I also had many patients who worked, paid taxes and were part of the movers and shakers of our society.  One became a member of a Royal College while another obtained a PhD.  Others included successful lawyers, a police officer, business people, motor mechanic, retailers, teachers, nurses, graphic artist and other key community workers.  No politicians … but several highly placed public servants.

No clerics, rabbis, reverends to date but one most interesting and troubled long-term seminarian studying divinity at a major institution. 

More on Abrahamic religions later from this card-carrying atheist. 

Andrew Byrne .. 

Small talk: food, music and anniversaries.

Dear friends, family and neighbours, 

Some of my exploits of the last week will be of no interest, such as my routine dental visit which ended up with my first filling in 50 years!  Likewise, few of you would be interested in my attendance at Friday prayers as a secular visitor, now almost part of the furniture (except there isn’t any in a mosque!).  

Of wider interest: Graham Murphy’s new Madam Butterfly will be a talking point for some time to come.  The gala performances were both this weekend (there are two casts for 23 performances over 3 weeks!).  This sets Butterfly as a bondage prostitute and has as many ‘coups-de-theatre’ as you could imagine, many by means of video plasma strips around the stage.  The three principals had enormous voices and they took all the hard options … yet later that night we wondered if it was amplified … something which changes the playing field and breaks a major rule of the opera theatre.  We know that the orchestra IS amplified or otherwise “enhanced”.  The opera supremo insisted to me that there was absolutely no amplification of the voices.  

I have finally bought a mobile phone at last so now I exist!  But for now I will only use it while in transit and for emergencies so continue to use my current email and landlines please. 

I made another batch of cumquat marmalade (happy to share).  And I had a Lebanese ‘master-class’ up-date on making babaganouche.  Choosing your egg plant (big but not too big).  Waiting until it is ‘ripe’ and ready for the flames (starting to soften with one or two ‘marks’ appearing).  Using the clear juice that oozes out of the cooked vegetable (I was discarding it!).  Adding plenty of lemon juice (and zest if you have the energy and the grater).  Don’t over-do the garlic and make sure it is fully crushed.  Salt to taste.  Add only a modest amount of tachini (and I cheat by adding a few drops of toasted sesame oil as well). 

Our friend, painter and handyman Barry Barakat died suddenly at 59 while walking the dog … leaving his family and us reeling for the loss.  The nuns at St Mary’s have put on some sort of tribute.  Very sad. 

I attended Bob Borowsky’s 80^th birthday 10 years ago and as he is still singing I was asked to speak at his 90^th celebration at Central Synagogue where I have only attended once in a year (after being a regular for a decade).  It was a warm welcome back for me, albeit the sceptical and secular outsider, and a very sincere tribute to Bob who trained at the Rome opera in the 1950s and has sung all around the world including the Sydney Opera House (in Manon Lescaut and La Traviata).  Bob’s recordings are on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9naC8asFE for one.  He sings solos each Shabbat which is remarkable and his voice is very well preserved.  It was also the 47^th anniversary of the chief cantor Shimon Farkas whose glorious tenor voice compliments Bob’s baritone with the male choir (supplemented for the occasion by the boy’s alto choir).  True vocal bliss … but not for the passing yokel I’m afraid. 

We heard the sad news that Kylie Kwong has finally closed her long running Billy Kwong restaurant this weekend. 

More anon.  Happy daze to all.  Andrew B ..

New York Postcard April - May 2019

We have had yet another frantic but enjoyable time in New York City, our 27^th annual Hajj to this sacred isle, each time encompassing medical, cultural, social and even religious events, despite being securely secular ’selves. 

And as so often is the case some of the best things in New York are free of charge. 

* Hudson Yards, monument and moguls with adjacent Hi-Line walkway.   
* Easter Sunday Service at Trinity Church Wall Street (see below). 

* Christie’s Auctions hold previews at their showrooms at Rockefeller Center.  
* Central Park changes each day from bare winter to jungle in just a few weeks. 
* Amateur orchestral concert on Friday evening in a church hall at Lincoln Center.

Hudson Yards:

Unless you believe there is a benefit in being a dozen storeys closer to some celestial deity I can think of no other more useless yet beautiful structures since the leaning tower of Pisa.  “Vessel” is a massive fantasy stairway-to-heaven opened in March on the reclaimed river foreshore called Hudson Yards.  It was designed by brilliant Englishman Thomas Heatherwick and cost 200 million dollars.  It is worth a look along with its high-end shopping centre, adjacent to the north end of the Hi-Line walkway near 34^th Street.  Tickets to walk up the 15 or so flights are free but need to be purchased ahead of time on line.  There is also an elevator.  

'Retired' soprano Renee Fleming has been playing in an alternative two-person show at the expandable venue adjacent to 'Vessel' called 'The Shed' on the Hudson foreshores.  It can accommodate up to 2000 patrons when fully expanded.    

There has been some criticism of the overall redevelopment of this area, some of which is located above the shunting tracks which serve Penn Station just a few blocks away.  It can be easily accessed using a new extension of the 7 subway line from Times Square.  

Auction previews: 

It is always worthwhile looking up Christie’s, Sotherby’s and other New York City auction schedules … we have been fortunate two years running to coincide with sales of European master paintings and old world antiquities.  But there are sales of carpets, watches, clocks, gem stones, jewellery, sculptures, motor cars and more.  And there are experts on hand to answer questions … we had a virtual tutorial on Dutch and Northern French flower paintings from a knowledgeable curator with a fine arts degree.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art also has a special exhibition of Dutch Masters in their rear gallery at present.  There are four Vermeers and perhaps a dozen Rembrandts plus numerous of their contemporaries.  The Met is no longer free unless you are a New York resident when you may pay what you wish. 

Central Park in spring:

A couple of photos … need I say more?  The lungs and recreation of a city. 

‘Amateur’ symphony orchestra in three concerto highlights:

Australian Maestro Russell Ger was guest conductor of a small 'amateur' but highly competent NYC Concerti Sinfonietta playing Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto, 1st mvt; Tchaikovsky violin concerto, 1st mvt and Beethoven piano concerto No. 4 all 3 mvts.  We sat in the front row which was an extraordinary experience.  Some will recall ‘Seven Year Itch’ with Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell which used the Rach 2 to hilarious effect.  Each piece was played consummately by the three soloists Ben Lerman, Seth Schultheis and Stanley Sisskin ... and to be so close was incredible at the old Presbyterian Church which backs onto the Julliard School in West 66th Street near Broadway.  ‘Amateur’ in New York can be the equivalent of professionals performing elsewhere. 

A high point was the Met Ring cycle in our second full week.  An extraordinary and exotic if irrational entertainment New York uniquely does the entire cycle’ in a week, being Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  This puts strains on singers, orchestra, audience, etc yet there are the ‘lay days’ in which we found a Poulenc dress rehearsal and amateur concert (see above) to fill in the time. 

Besides the Ring, we also saw the Met Don Giovanni, La Clemenza di Tito, La Traviata, Rigoletto plus Dialogues of the Carmelites.  I was asked to hear the choir and Cantor Helfgott at Park East Synagogue but to attend shule on a Shabbos morning and then Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods in the evening would seem out of Halachic order, even for a gentile, so I politely declined and went to the local markets instead.  A few enthusiasts wore horned helmets and there was a lovely Birgit Nilsson centenary display retrospective on the lowest level of the Met. 

I had the pleasure of accompanying my 16 year old niece Audrey Elwin to a performance of La Traviata with Placido Domingo singing Papa Germont.  He sang and acted with exemplary style and one was not aware of his being 80 years of age.  I also took my brother Richard and his belle ‘Mel’ Pearce to Don Giovanni with a stellar cast headed by Peter Mattei.  By a crazy coincidence I just ran into old Sydney Uni friend Dr Eddie Howe and his wife Helen.  Eddie is a fan of American mezzo Joyce DiDonato (who isn’t?) singing Sesto in Clemenza di Tito. 

I have to give a plug to Qantas whose new Dreamliner 787 connection from Los Angeles to JFK has made all the difference to a long and sometimes uncertain connection.  The A380 across the Pacific is as good as it gets and the decade old planes are due to have an upgrade with new seating and configuration or so I am told by an insider. 

Having elaborated a few freebies now here are a few new experiences which were more costly.  We were hosted by generous friends to some exotic venues as so often happens in the Big Apple.  “La Grenouille” is a fine French restaurant in Midtown which has a signature of multiple glorious flower arrangements.  First I thought we had walked into an exotic florist shop!  They served Dover sole and Sancerre by the glass on elegant full service tables … and we happily partook! 

The Century Club is an old institution started around 1850 for writers, poets and other arty types but is now just a classy establishment club with slight left leanings in an 1891 three storey architectural marvel Italian Renaissance-style palazzo with everything a city club needs (except a tennis court, perhaps).  The food is good club food, staff good club staff who remember members’ names and a fine art collection on the walls of its grand salon rooms.  

Eddie Howe treated his wife to a meal at Number Eleven Madison, supposedly the best restaurant in the world.  I look forward to their descriptions!  Our favourite restaurants remain Jean-Georges Nougatine, La Bonne Soupe, Café Luxembourg and the Wu Liang Ye (Sechuan).  

It is impossible to have a long conversation with anyone in America and not get around to the opioid overdose crisis since it has affected so many families.  Frequent newspaper items target avaricious doctors, drug companies, pharmacies and illicit drug markets.  Yet few mention the elephant in the room that opiate maintenance treatment is unavailable to the vast majority of those who might benefit from it.  In almost every other western country methadone or buprenorphine are available from private doctors and community pharmacies for those with established opioid addiction.  Once stable these patients are protected to a very strong degree from overdose death.  Yet in the USA buprenorphine is extremely expensive and methadone is still restricted to a small number of regulated clinics which often have waiting lists and are remote from where most people live (partly NIMBY syndrome).  More about these tragic matters on my medical blog.  Only in the Civil War was such carnage seen.  

Anyone who got to this point in my Gotham narrative deserves commendation.  Thank you for reading.  AB .. 

Andrew, Audrey and Allan 

Andrew, Susan, Ed and Allan attending The Ring

Rob, Caroline and Allan at Shakespeare and Company in Broadway. 

Andrew, brother Richard, Mel and Allan

Hawaii - Oahu and Maui September 2018

Dear Friends and Family,

We found so much joy, education, cuisine and multi-cultural couth in Hawaii in recent years others might be interested to read some of our observations of these wonderful islands.  [see photos below]

Waikiki Beach is the great draw-card with excellent hotels, restaurants and a marine beachfront without peer in view of Diamond Head, a massive extinct volcano.  It dominates proceedings just as Ben Buckler does at Bondi in Sydney.  Yet the latter is a 15 minute walk while Diamond Head might take a couple of hours in tropical heat and humidity.  Waikiki Beach is almost entirely man-made and is over 3km in length. 

After a top time in Oahu and Honolulu’s deep-water port, Pearl Harbor, we spent 4 days on Maui, a glorious piece of paradise on earth.  It is essentially two volcanoes joined by a large arable area with beaches on both sides.  We stayed at Kula in ‘Up-country’ Maui which is at 1000m (and thus less humid and lower temperatures) and on the way to Mount Haleakala at 3000m with telescopes and enormous sunken lava crater 16km long and 5km wide.  We drove up one morning which takes about an hour on an excellent but rather serpentine sealed road.  The very top is like a Martian landscape of red volcanic eroded mounds and ‘cinder-cones’.  We were able to clearly see the Big Island’s Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa (of Kona coffee fame) from the top as the Kiluea ‘vog’ (volcanic fog) was blown south that day – and any cloud cover was well below us. 

Unlike Mauna Kea (4000m) on the Big Island, there is much to do and see on the way up to the summit of Haleakala: long hikes, eucalypt forests (!), remote farms, colonial relics, etc but we just had a look around, took a few photos and had a brief talk with a knowledgeable park ranger about the place.   There are demonstrations of the unique flora and fauna at this altitude including the famous ‘silver sword’ bush which lives for 50 years and only flowers once to produce seeds.  We then drove back down the mountain to our digs at Kula. 

It was nice to lunch with some American opera friends at Hali’imaile General Store, one of the best restaurants on the island.  They gave us a tip to see giant green turtles and we were not disappointed at a sandy beach nearby … and not far from another famous eatery called Moma’s Fish House (next trip maybe!). 

Food is generally very good but quite expensive so a $40 main course (“entrée”) becomes $46 with a tip, $51 with tax and then $63 with the exchange rate.  Add a starter, wine and/or dessert and you are up for A$100 each in no time.  We later ordered wood fired pizza for dinner - $27 for two.  The view from Kula Lodge includes much of the island’s lowlands from ocean to ocean and the opposite mountain which has an entire ridge of wind turbines reducing the need for fossil fuels.  The airport is at Kahului, a twin town which includes Wailuku. 

We flew back for our last 4 days at Waikiki Beach with an anniversary medical function on the Saturday night and a lovely BBQ on the east coast at a private home with friends we met a year before plus some new friends and an acquaintance from Manhattan.  More food, salt water and ‘recreating’, to use the vernacular.  Speaking of which, we learned quite a few Polynesian words, some of which have entered the English language: wiki (quick); tapu (taboo); kava; aloha (hello) and mahalo (thanks and greetings). 

Notes written by Andrew Byrne .. 

 Waikiki Beach with Diamond Head crater. 

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Waikiki Beach

AB on Mount Haleakala (sunken crater below)

Silver sword bush

View from lanai (deck) at Kula Lodge, Maui. 

Giant green turtles on Maui.

Andrew Byrne’ New York travel log 2018

New York in spring is the least predictable time of year for the weather … this year April was cold and there was even a late snowfall … the fourth of the season! 

Café Luxembourg on 70^th Street near Broadway was our ‘local’ and eating at the bar was a friendly event, meeting locals and visitors alike.  Our favourite Chinese is opposite the Rockefeller Center in 48^th Street the Wu Liang Ye Sechuan Restaurant.  We are always welcomed by the staff and order the usual dumplings in black pepper sauce, tripe, tongue, beans, egg plant dishes, etc.  Jean-Georges Nougatine at Columbus Circle provided a consistent quality lunch where I tried my first Dover sole which did not disappoint.  Korean specialty restaurant the ATOBOY was also a good value culinary experience in midtown.  Hole-in-the-wall Indian Aaheli in Hell’s Kitchen served a chicken chattinad to die for – and all of tables strewn with rose petals. 

Metropolitan Museum of Art – with a difference. 

We paid a $90 donation to swan around the entire museum after hours with other members from 6 until 10pm while being served canapés and cocktails.  There were also some alternative dance routines in the open spaces.  Curators were available in many of the galleries and there were guided tours including one called ‘Hidden mysteries of the Metropolitan Museum’.  A very special experience to have a party in a real Egyptian temple! 

We did not have the same all-positive experience as our friends did at the special exhibit ‘Visit to Versailles’, largely because of a program I had watched about the pungent smells and lack of toilet facilities in the reign of Louis XIV when the place was abuzz with nobles from all over France.  The curator, a knowledgeable Dutch lady, told us that only the royals would have had toilet facilities and then they were just porcelain bowls which, once filled, were simply emptied out of the windows and into the garden which was also used by everyone else as a public convenience.  She confirmed that it was the era when French perfumeries made large sums as rich people tried to get away from the terrible smell of so many people living so close together, however grand the chateau - the largest in the world we were informed, by the time of the revolution – no wonder there WAS a revolution. 

But it was marvellous to see the carpets, diagrams, paintings, pottery, poems, sculptures and stories about the peri-Parisian parapet.  The Frank Lloyd Wright living room in the American Wing was splendid also on the ‘mysteries’ tour. 

Opera scene in April 2018 in Manhattan:

New York offered a real panoply of opera this April: Cosi fan Tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Turandot, Romeo and Juliette, Luisa Miller, Cendrillon and Tosca at the Met along with Bernstein’s Candide at Carnegie Hall.  Ms Netrebko’s Tosca was a high point and the only time we saw the Met actually sold out.  Her very fine tenor husband Yusif Eyvazov played Cavaradossi since Marcelo Alvarez had pulled out.  We also heard Exteminating Angel, Lucia and Luisa Miller on the Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts while we were in the city. 

Our Cosi fan tutte matinee was spoiled by jet-lag so we were fortunate to get ‘rush’ seats a couple of weeks later, getting much more out of the brilliant up-dating to 1960s Coney Island fun fair and adjacent ‘Skyline Motel’ in Brooklyn.  The sometimes problematic story line became slightly MORE believable - the girls not recognising their own lovers … some of the audience might have been in the same boat, such was the transformation of handsome uniformed naval officers into boyish Brooklyn denim dandies.  Broadway star Kelli O’Hara played the scheming maid Despina while accomplished baritone Christopher Maltman played Don Alfonso, patron to the four lovers.  

The final season performance of Turandot may well spell the end of the wonderful grand production set in the forbidden city of Beijing.  Many of the old productions have been replaced into the ‘close-up’ world of HD telecasts, Aida and La Boheme remaining from the previous Met dynasties.  Martina Serafin was stunning at Turadot but Marcelo Alvarez has been having vocal problems after losing some weight, or so we were told, and his Calaf was under-par.  Liu was Hei-Kyung Hong a stalwart of the Met for decades and she did not disappoint with a most touching legato display of vocal and dramatic skills. 

We attended the first (ever) performance of Massenet’s Cendrillon (Cinderella) at the Met.  It had three of the world’s top mezzo-sopranos, Alice Coote, Joyce deDonato and Stephanie Blythe in an absolutely brilliant production … yet the opera fell flat for me just as Don Quichotte and Thais had recently.  Perhaps I am not a Massenet person.  I just can’t imagine why he chose to put neither a baritone nor a tenor into a serious opera.  Others have substituted a male for Prince Charming since, but not at The Met where ‘come scritto’ is the rule.  The hen-pecked father was excellent French bass Laurent Nouri.  He also plays old Capulet in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette. 

Cendrillon dragged on for 4 long acts, each a dream of the following one.  All I could think of was Rossini’s Cenerentola which had more glorious melodic invention in its overture than Massenet’s entire piece.  A singer friend told me afterwards that it is more a ballet-person’s opera than a singer’s.  Are there any well known arias from Cendrillon? 

A New York Times critique of Placido Domingo aged about 80 in Luisa Miller is worth reading on its own https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/arts/music/review-placido-domingo-met-opera-luisa-miller.html .  This brilliant piece of writing likens Domingo’s feat to Federer winning a grand slam ten years hence.  As well as performing the father in Luisa Miller, Domingo was also conducting Romeo and Juliette!  A phenomenon of operatic history.  We enjoyed the performance greatly having first heard Aprile Millo in Rome as Luisa Miller with Alberto Cupido playing the tenor role about 25 years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d92LLNchYc ) 

A fraction of balance was added to our grand opera schedule was Bernstein’s Candide at Carnegie Hall where Erin Morley was a magnificent Gunegonde … she will sing Woodbird next year in the Ring I believe.  Her Glitter and Be Gay was like the Queen of the Night on steroids.  It was an unexpected privilege by chance to meet sopranos Pretty Yende and Camilla Nyland (quite separately) each in relaxed circumstances far from their costumes, roles, critics, agents, etc in the Met foyers.  Only in New York. 

Medical matters:

NYU talks on overdose crisis and then on memory loss in the elderly; ASAM conference San Diego live streamed; Rockefeller University welcome; Drug Policy Alliance, George Soros-funded mover and shaker on drug law reform in America and internationally.  The latter have just hosted 200 knowledgeable and influential people on a study tour of Portugal looking at their near 20 year experience with complete drug decriminalisation for personal use (defined).  It seems that there are many pros and almost no ‘cons’.  So why are we still punishing drug users in Australia?  This punishes us all, just like the refugees on Manus Island, more than just a bad look. 

I was invited by Dr Joyce Lowinson to a talk by Columbia Nobel Laureate Dr Eric Kandel on memory loss in the elderly at NYU which was fascinating and instructive (get more exercise!).  Since my next meeting was at 1pm at Drug Policy Alliance I walked much of 33rd St from 1st Avenue to 7th Ave near Macy’s department store.  The new DPA’s CEO Maria McFarland Moreno-Sanchez was waiting right on time.  Her PA Chris Soda made me a cup of coffee and we had a talk about international events, Australia perspective and the US overdose crisis which dominates conversation in our field currently. 

Chris then walked me around to their international and academic office in 29th St past Pennsylvania Station where I met two other DPA officers who were welcoming and pleased to hear of developments in Australia.  Our good fortune to have modern anti-virals funded for hepatitis C has been a beacon of care in an otherwise tough and inflexible treatment milieu for drug affected citizens. 

Notes by Andrew Byrne, addiction physician of Sydney, Australia. 

2017 round-up for Andrew Byrne and Allan Gill ...

* Travel insurance for cancer sufferers - no luck so far. 
* Menzies Art Auctions - don't go to the auction!
* MONA in Hobart - Egypt on the Derwent. 
* Honolulu ... food, friends and Islamic art museum. 
* Reunion with Dutch friend after 44 years! 
* Piano work composed by patient from 1989 found!

Some details of our year's events might interest some readers. 

I am currently involved in a movement to force companies to cover people with cancer for travel insurance, something that has been a bug-bear of mine since having lymphoma 14 years ago and annual trips to Manhattan. 

We have decided that superannuation funds in a low-interest account is just plain stupid so we have taken to using Menzies auctions as our wall-paper of late.  We make a point of buying NOTHING at the recommended prices and take left-overs which are either passed in or sold below the low estimate if we like them.  In November we chanced upon a Rupert Bunny (could never have dreamed that I would ever own such a work).  It is a lovely rural/agri scene near a French Catalan town in 1926 with mountains in the background, presumably the Pyrenees or foothills thereof. 

My kid sister Marguerite Elwin turned 50 in October and we four went to celebrate at MONA where we basically spent four days underground.  I am not a fan of much of modern art yet their Egyptian collection and overall architecture and vineyard setting on the Derwent estuary are splendid, along with The Source (by John Olsen, a Highlands neighbour) restaurant on site.  The vineyard was originally planted by Claudio Alcorso who also started Sheridan Sheets and was an early patron of the Australian Opera.  See: http://ajbtravels.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/a-visit-to-hobart-museum-of-old-and-new.html

 

We retraced our steps in Honolulu (third time!), including this time a visit to the wonderful home of heiress Doris Duke and its collection of Islamic art … located on the Diamond Head volcano, looking out onto Waikiki Beach it is a many splendid tour (and always booked out on previous visits – now we know why!). 
 

At the Doris Duke mansion.

My most 'unlikely' event was catching up with a girl I had not seen since holidaying in 1973 and 1975 in Europe as teenagers.  Annemieke Verdoorn had since become a popular TV actress in Holland and her face was known from Antwerp to Capetown.  She later married an Aussie (as you do!) and as I only learned recently, they moved to Sydney where they have a 16 year old son at my old school, Cranbrook!!!   What a small world from Rotterdam to Bellevue Hill!!  We had a lovely reunion luncheon at Potts Point in December. 

While cleaning up before our dreaded accreditation cycle I found some old music written for me by an elderly and grateful patient, composer Lesley Adams.  The manuscript was far too difficult for me so I had filed it away and not thought another thing until this year.  Acclaimed maestro Glenn Amer agreed to play the piece and he recorded it on the spot on his digitally modified Steinway grand player piano.  A charming piece, supposedly about my own 'Alter Ego' (see manuscript excerpts here of this 2 minute keyboard piece - download on request). 

 

 

 

Allan and I have now settled into a nice rhythm living in Burradoo near Bowral and I spend 3 days each week in Sydney while Allan comes up most weeks for a couple of days, his main responsibility being the garden and house in the Highlands (see us in the snow on: https://andrew-byrne.blogspot.com/ )  We mostly catch the Canberra “express” as the freeway is packed and we both dislike driving. 

In December 2016 after ten years, I ceased attending Central Synagogue and I now spend more time in the local mosque (see: http://cantorialcrossoverculture.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/a-semitic-learning-curve-enjoyable.html)

Cheers to all for the season and New Year … Andrew Byrne .. 

Sunday morning walk in Bowral ...

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Whenever I go out on Sunday mornings for my walk in Bowral I invariably get an education, recreation and a small amount of exercise.  This time I passed the new “Home No 9” Thai restaurant opposite Coles and had memories of the previous night’s excellent dinner there.  I also went to their opening two weeks ago which was auspicious, noting several ‘colourful local identities’ (you know who you are!) also enjoying the brilliant and diverse Asian food on offer.  It is a branch of the Bangkok House Restaurant in Mittagong.  Highly recommended. 

After then walking through the aftermath of the tulip festival in Corbett Gardens I found myself in a crowd of happy, hungry Catholics.  The service at St Thomas Aquinas finishes dead on 10am most Sundays … not surprising when they have had 2000 years practice serving their parishioners and their deity.   Having looped past the bank and shopping arcades I found myself outside the Uniting Church, dismissing their congregants fully half an hour late.  Rev Harry Herbert had given the guest sermon on Reformation Sunday (don’t tell the Catholics, please).  He told me outside that this week is the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous thesis questioning Papal indulgences and starting the Protestant movement across northern Europe (and quite a lot of mischief since).  For once St Mary’s in Sydney has a service commemorating the event, something I find somewhat bizarre.  I am totally secular but respect people of all faiths and rather enjoy joining them, largely for the music, children, food and humour (and I include synagogues and mosques in my ‘rounds’). 

 

St Thomas Aquinas church and Mount Gibraltar.

 

My German forbears (there were Swiss Italian and Irish as well) were Lutheran but Bathurst did not have a Lutheran church in 1857 so they became Roman Catholic for 100 years or so.  [end of sermon]

For those into opera (and other things) the Bowral Empire Cinema complex has a round of excellent movies including the MetOpera HD broadcasts.  This time it was the season opening Norma by Bellini, my all time favourite opera with a dream cast including Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja.  Our friends just saw a disaster movie called Geostorm.  Good luck!  The trailer is shocking enough for me!  Galactic tsunamis!

I feel very happy that we have good produce, shopping, restaurants, professional services and even culture in the Southern Highlands.  Although I take the Xplorer train each week for part-time work in Sydney I do nearly all my commerce here in the Highlands. 

Best wishes from Burradoo, Andrew Byrne ..

Highlands hide-away Hunting Lodge: http://andrew-byrne.blogspot.com.au/

Opera blog: http://andrewsopera.blogspot.com/