Leaving the Homeland 73'

 1973 had been a wonderful year, I moved into an apartment with Beverly in Elizabeth Bay, a beautiful little spot overlooking Sydney Harbour. Beverly had invited me to stay with her, she knew I was saving my pennies to go to Europe and refused to accept any rent. She said that she had received help when she had first left Australia and wanted to return the favour to someone.
 
 It was such a happy time for me, I was working as a make-up artist and at last making some money at it. I had a job as head bar man in the hottest place in town. I was so excited at the prospect of travelling, of seeing the world, of conquering the world, my spirit was infectious I was bursting with joy. My life felt perfect, many friends, many lovers and I was filled with inspiration, I filled every second and even found time to paint. Late at night I would find myself sitting alone by the waters edge trying to imagine what was ahead of me, trying to visualise Greece and Italy and the rest of world. I had finally found happiness, at 25 I was accepted and at last I had accepted myself, I had found my self worth.
 
 A few days before leaving Australia my dear Mother came down from the country to say good-bye, she was sad but I loved spending the day with her and we knew that it would be our last together for a long time.
 
 Many friends came to say good-bye on that warm September day but all of a sudden I was petrified, I had made the commitment and the day had come to leave, I told Mary Shackman that I was scared, she was so sweet and told be that I had to fulfil my dream, otherwise I would never be happy, I nodded my head and tried to be brave. Nadine Guilford and husband Barry Ross came to the boat with other friends, Peter Golding and Marlene Saunders, Nadine and Barry handed me an envelope with a couple of hundred dollars in it, they were so kind but I don't think they realised they had just doubled my spending money.
 
 That evening I said good-bye to Australia as I sailed out of Sydney harbour, the stars were so bright and I stayed on deck for hours, I was drinking from the cup of absolute adventure. The ship I was travelling on was called the "Patris", a Greek liner that would sail the coast of Australia going south to Melbourne and then across the Bite and up the west coast from Perth to Singapore.
 
 I hated this ship, I hated travelling by sea, it felt so claustrophobic and I did not relate to my fellow travellers. For four days the boat rocked every which way around the Great Australia Bite and I couldn't eat a thing, I looked at food and was sick. The only relief I felt was listening to the afternoon musical recitals as I sat outside the auditorium to maintain my flow of fresh air. Finally we arrived in Perth and then there was smooth sailing to Singapore.
 
 The most magical moment of the trip, (besides touching land again) was sailing through the islands of Java and Sumatra at sunset. I stood at the stern of the ship and watched the sky dance, like fire clouds rose upward in a swirl of red, yellow, green, gold, purple and magenta. To this day I have never seen a more magnificent sunset and that moment made the whole journey worthwhile.
 
 Singapore had a strict rule that no man was allowed to pass through immigration that had hair over his collar, a residue of the hippy culture and that country's inane attempt to keep out undesirables.
 
 My travelling partner Maude told a few that I could hide hair, within a days every bobby pin on the ship had been handed to me and the task began to hide the young men's long hair.
 
 Three days were spent in Singapore and I found my first port of call exhilarating, a new culture, so different from Australia. I observed a beautiful Indian woman sitting by the side of the road, her skin the colour of dark amber and dressed in the most beautiful sari. She had cooked some rice where she sat and began eating it with her long dark slender fingers. I had never before seen what would be called a peasant, how elegant and proud she was.
 
 The smells, the sights and the colours fed my imagination, the differences awoke something that I as yet did not comprehend I just loved everything and I tingled with excitement of what was ahead of me on this adventure.
 
To Greece 73'

 Only three days in the Far East and I boarded a midnight flight on Olympic Airways to Athens. Everything was a first for me, my first international flight and I was seated by a window but in the middle seat next to me was an enormously fat Greek woman. She was petrified of flying and for the whole 10 to 12 hours she grabbed me every time there was the slightest turbulence. But still the excitement of going Europe and being out of Australia brought me to such a high that nothing was going to destroy the magic I felt within, for at last my dreams were being realised. I never got any sleep during the flight and that poor woman blessed herself and prayed out loud when we finally landed, so did I.
 
 We arrived at Athens airport at 3 am and I was shocked to see men dressed in military outfits and holding rifles at the airport. Maude and I drove in the City and were deposited at Constitution Square, otherwise known as the Plaka. It was still dark when we arrived and we sat with our bags by a closed coffee house and waited for this ancient city to come to life.
 
 The Sun slowly saturated the city with light, I was shivering with pleasure as I watched the pillars of the Temple of Zeus emerge before my eyes, the hills around Athens were smoking with a light fog that looked like it was stuck to the thousands of cypress trees that covered the hills. Again magic, picture postcards all around us. We finally hailed a cab after sitting there for nearly 4 hours and arrived at our small hotel. My little room was delightful, the sheets were white and crisp and I lay down in my own private room for the first time in two weeks.
 
 Maude started to meet all the young travellers that inhabited our hotel and all the others in our street. I wanted to discover the temples and the ancients, I wanted to saturate this place into my core, I wanted to feel and see everything as it was now and as it once had been.
 
 So alone I ventured forth and what was so strange to me was that it looked so familiar. I walked that day for at least 8 hours, I returned to the Plaka, I wandered the streets smelling the City's essence and breathing in its life force. I sat in a chair that was carved in a single piece of marble and watched the room that once surrounded it rebuild itself, I saw everything in two different dimensions at once, it was like I could traipse time.
 
 The Parthenon was extraordinary, such a magnificent place, it not only felt so grand but a holy place where I felt the Greeks built this temple to get closer to God.
 
 The days went by so fast and knew I could not linger here too long, so I booked a flight to Italy the country of my destination. I always dreamed of living in Italy, I loved the Italian vision, the painting, the sculpture and I wanted to work for Italian Vogue and Fellini. Tomorrow I turned 26 and the next morning I would leave for Rome.
 
 My last day in Greece was mostly spent wandering again, sitting in little cafes I watched this new world go by, there were so many people, so many different cultures, accents and colours. My world was no longer isolated to an island in southern hemisphere, I was in Europe, I was where all seekers and adventures journeyed to find their dreams. That night Maude and I and some fellow travellers toasted my birthday with a barbecued chicken and a bottle of very cheap Greek wine.
 
Rome 73'

 After finding a small room in Rome I started to discover the City, I walked far and began to feel like I did in Athens a sense of revisiting a place I had been to before. I wondered if desire makes us feel like we know some place or some thing even if we have never seen it before. So I tested it and I said to myself that I want to find the Via Veneto, a street that I had long romanticised about. Within in an hour of walking I was there, I was amazed, I had no map and I had just followed my nose. I felt like I was being guided but by what, my own sense of direction or by some force that was unknown to me, I did not have an answer this peculiar ability.
 
Milan 73'

 I felt very lonely in Rome so after only two days I boarded a plane to Milan, there I found Robin Chaffey and settled into a prison like room in the Hotel Sabatino.
 
Still I loved Milan, I was in a new country and within a very short time I had met many fellow travellers that were also seeking their fortunes in Italy's fashion centre. I spent much time sitting at the Duomo and watching and feeling my environment. Italy held a magic, a history that had existed for so long, Australia was so young in comparison.
 
 I worked hard at trying to connect with the magazines and photographers of the time but to no avail, my work was not up to speed and my portfolio was not good enough. I knew I couldn't stay here, I couldn't even get a menial job. I had to head for London, I never wanted to go there, I didn't like the English very much, I had always found them so mean of spirit and without passion. I had to live and I knew I could get a job there as a bar man while I awaited my moment of success.

London 73'
 
 I was very tied, the train trip from Milan was long and arduous but I was in England. My friends Sarah Grant and Jeremy Gadd were here so at least I wouldn't be completely alone. As I alighted the train at Victoria station I was immediately engulfed by the sense of history that lay before me, it was dirty and cluttered with glum people but still I was elated.
 
 Those feelings were filling me again, I was a wanderer, an adventurer, I was alone in a place were everything was so strange to me, I was an alien, the emptiness welled in my stomach again and at the same time I was filled with excitement that only can ever be understood by those that journey into the unknown. Even on the train I heard many languages being spoken, accents I didn't understand, always I smiled, there was confusion but here at  last I was in a place where everyone spoke my language.
 
 I stopped someone and asked where I could get a train to Kilburn, I found my way and sat staring out of the train window. This place was so ugly, the little houses crammed together, everything looked so grey and sad.
 
 I waited for four hours for someone to come to the house, as it was getting dark Sarah and Jeremy's flat mate arrived home and I was to learn that Sarah was in Paris working on a photo shoot and Jeremy had stayed in Guilford where he was working with a small acting company. I was allowed to bunk down on the couch until their return.
 
 But I was restless that night and even though I had spent nearly 20 hours travelling I wanted to investigate London, so off I headed to Piccadilly Circus and wandered there for hours absorbing this new City.
 
 Everything in England seemed to be starting out well, after a few days with Sarah and Jeremy I had found a small room in Notting Hill Gate and had acquired a job with Revlon again. I didn't really want to work for a cosmetic company but I thought it was somewhere to begin and as I had little funds , it would keep me going until I broke into the fashion industry.
 
 Only a week in London and I left my wallet by a phone booth at Knightsbridge Railway station. I gathered my belongings to get change from a nearby store and picked up everything but my wallet, it was gone in a moment and there I stood in a new country without a penny to my name. I freaked, what was I to do I did not even have the bus fare back to my little room, I stood on the street and said a prayer, within a few minutes a woman I had met at Models One walked past and after explaining my plight she offered me 40 pence. That night I was filled with fear, when I awoke the next morning a voice jumped into my head and said "If you start from the bottom rung of the ladder, you will reach the top".
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