Lockhart Road
Cultural Attache
- Mar 26, 2013
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I have no problem expanding on it. Will do so by recalling a scene or two in Shanghai in 2016.Lockhart regarding the point you made about cd saving the coach from himself are you able to expand On that a bit more. No drama if you don’t feel it’s appropriate.
First night we arrived my colleague and I were invited to join a rather large dinner held in a Sichuan restaurant on the harbour side of the Bund. The food was fantastic. I gorged on it so much it affected my intestinal system for the next couple of days. Not my cerebral system however. Nothing could mess with that as I was concentrating hard and there was so much to concentrate on.
The dinner set-up consisted of several long tables, and guests included the Flying Boomerangs and their minders who included Gavin Wanganeen who was setting out in earnest on his art career, Matthew Stokes etc.
It was a great night.
My colleague and I sat three in from the end of one table. That means there were four seats between us and the window. In those seats sat Hinkley (next to me), Darren Burgess (next to him), Chris Davies (across from Hinkley) and Tara MacLeod. The four of them had their heads together all night. I think I ate all their food.
It was clear to me the effort Chris Davies was putting in, focus on Hinkley.
Don’t forget that this was immediately after the internal review that had pinned Hinkley to the wall, embarrassed the heck out of him, annoyed the heck out of him ... yet had driven him to make an effort to learn and improve.
It was clear that Hinkley was totally out of place in an international setting ... but Chris was in his element and was doing all he could to ‘educate’ Hinkley that he had to adapt to the bigger picture. It seemed to be working.
KT made a point of taking the seat next to my colleague, across from me, incidentally, and talked his head off for two hours, so excited was he about the way Shanghai, Cathay Pacific etc. were going. KT in 2016 is not the same as the 2018-2019 version of KT. He has been flogged to death by a wet tram ticket called Koch.
Ken H. asked me one polite question during the entire dinner. No, he didn’t ask any impolite question, just the one routine polite one.
I asked him about the Draft. He told me that if Essendon hadn’t taken Ridley he would be on our list and we wouldn’t have Drew, with Atley in between. I asked him if Parfitt was ever under consideration. “Nah.”
Two nights later was the main event in the main function hall of the Portman Ritz Carlton. Ken stayed off virtually on his own. I went up, put a hand on his shoulder, invited him to the Races in Hong Kong. “Give yourself a break, mate,” I said, “Come to Hong Kong for a week with your wife. I’ll make sure you’re looked after.” Ken said “Thanks.”
Chris Davies came up to my colleague and me and talked Club, football, Charlie Dixon dropping his head in the marking contest, etc etc etc for an hour.
Terrific first impression. Compared to out-of-place Ken - chalk and cheese.
I could go on, but I hope that’s enough.