Melbourne
05.Nov.09
Shane Warne turned up at The Hamer Hall in Melbourne for my opening night there. Then I went to one of Shane’s charity evenings at the Casino. He persuaded 400 punters to pay one thousand Oz dollars each to play in a tournament for his charity – The Shane Warne Foundation. He raised more than half a million dollars on the night. He’s as full on and determined about fund raising as he was about playing cricket. A really remarkable bloke.
We sold out in Melbourne. Great venue, wonderful crowds. If ever you come to this city – and you should, it’s a wonderful place – try a meal at The Rockpool in the Casino. Neil Perry, who has two other Rockpools in Sydney and is one of Australia’s great chefs, has a real gift for devising menus so beguiling you want to eat every dish. My fish was perfectly cooked – nearly as good as Dominic Chapman’s work at son Nick’s Royal Oak in Paley Street. Canberra is the beautifully laid out capital city of Australia. We stayed at a unique Hyatt, designed in the 1920’s of spacious and stylish Art Deco design. Another must is the National Gallery which has a wonderful range of good paintings from the world over including Jason Pollocks’s Blue Poles, which is a work of breathtaking beauty and complexity. In the early 70’s the Gallery bought it for 1.3 million dollars and such was the public outrage at this ‘waste’ of money it nearly brought down the Government. Today, if ever it was to be sold, it would fetch 200 million dollars. That’s what the experts reckon. Today the foolish purchase looks like the bargain of the century. In any event if you are ever within a hundred miles of it pay a visit.