Summer and nostalgia in Sydney

After Singapore, I had a wonderful 2.5 weeks visiting home in Sydney. I arrived on the morning of Mum's birthday, with mine following the day after, lugging a suitcase full of Chrissy presents. It was great to be able to celebrate birthdays with the family, albeit slightly jet lagged at dinner!


It's been over a year since I have been back and it was great to see family and friends again, bask under the warm sunshine, head to the sandy beaches, swim in the blue-green ocean, eat out at some favourite places and also meet the newest addition to the family, Pepper!


Pepper is Mel and David's 4-month old puppy, a shi tzu x pug with a ball of energy and a fondness for Country Road tote bags.

Pepper ♥ Country Road totes

I have loads of photos (some of which you might have already seen on Facebook) so I won't write a lot here but will mention that the one word I find sums up my time back in Sydney is nostalgia.

Maybe we have been away for so long now (2.5 years and counting) that coming back evokes such a strong sense nostalgia. It was lovely to relive this, but also see how much Sydney has progressed. I was surprised to find how unaffected Sydney was to global recession. It was a stark contrast to our observations this time last year in London. One thing Australia seemed to share with the UK, however, was the shambles the Government was in while I was home!

But enough said, here are some photos from my summer in Sydney.

Bee-lining to the beach the day I landed in Sydney. Could not have been a more beautiful day for lunch at Bronte Beach with Dad

A visit to the One Noffs store Mel volunteers her time to each week to support the Ted Noffs Foundation and young Australian fashion designers

Pepper sinks her teeth into one of her Chrissy presents from London

Bathers Pavilion at Balmoral is one of my favourite places in Sydney

Birthday brunch with Aunty Kew a Bathers

Bumping into another visitor to Sydney... Adam! What were the odds of being at the same place, on the same day, at same time having flown in from Geneva and London? Weren't we just in Geneva a moment ago??

The ARIA Awards at the Acer Arena on the night of my birthday. Truly impressed by Aussie musical talent...

... Like Empire of the Sun (above), Lisa Mitchell and The Temper Trap (click on the names to view their live performances at the ARIAs)

... And guest start, Robbie Williams (click to view Robbie live at the ARIAs)

Mel with her beautiful handmade wares at her market stall in Balmain. Check out her online store here before they all disappear!

Lunch on the water at China Doll, Woolloomooloo

Time with Mum at Bondi Beach, post a morning at the day-spa

Lunch at Speedo Cafe, Bondi Beach

With my grandparents, Mel and Mum

Lunch with Aunty June and Mel in Glebe

Have missed these family dinners lots!

Visiting my old uni, UTS for the opening night of Republic of Design, the 2009 design degree shows

Brunch with the Millers at Rozelle

Taking Pepper to Bronte Beach with Mel

Swimming at Bronte pool

A Sydney latte, served up with a famous Australian emblem!

With Cindy on her Hen's Night. Congrats to Cindy and Mal on their marriage this month, 17/12/09 in New Zealand

Sharing a few drinks with Trinh at the Ivy in Sydney City. Can't say there are many places in the world where you get served drinks by a waitress in her swimmers and Haviana thongs/flip flops. Congrats to Trinh and Harry on their marriage this month, 12/12/09 in Sydney

The last supper at Stir Crazy Thai, Neutral Bay

A final night in Sydney

The photos only show a small part of my time in Sydney. There were many more great memories with family, old friends and new ones. Thanks everyone for a wonderful visit home, and thanks to you for sharing another year of life, travel, work and study on our Two Drifters blog. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays. See you in 2010!

All about design in Singapore

In November I was in Singapore to do a presentation at the Icsid (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) Education Conference. The theme of the conference was design education 2050, and I submitted a paper that profiled my current PhD research on the changing role of the designer.


My intent was to inform the design education community of new areas designers were working in. Here in London, I am involved with a design community (see our city chapter here) who push the boundaries of the discipline, working in areas where they design for services (both private and public sector), for development, for sustainability and for strategy. Most designers come from the traditional disciplines of product design or communication design, but see the potential for design to move into many new and different areas.

I left London on a clear and sunny afternoon for a red eye flight to Singapore. I stayed at the Meritus Mandarin Hotel (what now seems like a second home for family visits to Singapore) right in the thick of the action on Singapore's main shopping hub, Orchard Road.


The conference presentation was done the following day (yes, while I battled jet lag!) and was very well received. I won't blog details about the conference here as I posted a review on my research blog, Letters to Australia (LTA) (click on the link to view). With the presentation over and done with, it was onto the next conference, the bigger Icsid Design Congress.


This conference was attended by 700 delegates from around the world to discuss and share visions for design in 2050. I only spent 2 days at the 3-day congress but really enjoyed my time there. I posted a more indepth review of Congress on the LTA blog here.

I had a great time in Singapore, talking and hearing all about design, meeting loads of people, making up for all the Chinese food I don't eat in London, and of course shoe shopping (a must every time I visit the city). After a fleeting Singapore stay, it was time to take another red eye to visit home in Sydney.

Note... If you would like to know more about the kind of design I mentioned above, and my PhD research, while I was in Singapore I was notified that a journal paper I co-authored was published online by the Australiasian Medical Journal.

The journal paper is about a project where designers co-designed the future of dementia care with a community of people with dementia and their carers. The paper is called, Co-designing for dementia: The Alzheimer 100 project. Click on the title to download a pdf.

Autumn Geneva

One Autumn October weekend, a group of us (Angela, Albert, Geoff, Myles, Tom, Tim and I) left London for a weekend in the lovely Geneva.


We were all there also, to visit Adam who just moved to the city 2 months ago from Australia.

Photo by Tom

Geneva couldn't be more different than London; clean air, clear days, sunshine, a still and clear water lake, wide streets, free (for city visitors) transport and a backdrop of rocky mountains with white tipped alps in the distance. Autumn had definitely descended on the city because the tree leaves had just turned deep yellow and red making for a stunning sight.


All this was only supposed to be a less than 2 hour flight by plane from London, but lengthy flight delays meant we were held hostage for 4 hours at the airport before we could enjoy Geneva. But we all did make it in time for rich fondue on the lake at Buvettes des Bains on a crisp and cool Saturday night.


Needless to say, after filling up on cheese, we all hit the sack at the excellent Kipling Hotel, which seems many more stars than the 3 it has been awarded.


Sunday morning we made our way (with our passports) across the Swiss-French border to Téléphérique du Salève to catch a 5 minute cable car ride up 1100 metres to the top of Mont Saleve.

It boasted views right across Geneva and the alpine region.

We made our way up and around to the other side of the mountain for more views.


And then took the "short cut" muddy track down, temporarily distracted (from our hunger and muddy shoes) by a paraglider about to take off off the side of the mountain. We watched helplessly as he prepared the chute and the mess of strings (which frankly had us all worried) before his run off the side. As his red chute filled with air and glided down over the green fields, it was back to the muddy tracks, lookout, cable car and bus to town for lunch to satisfy our ravishing hunger (even after Albert and Angela's Pizza Shapes all the way from Oz which we scoffed down on the side of the mountain).

Lunch was a couple of massive Italian pizzas and bowls of pasta before we walked off the carbs up around the lovely cobbled Old Town surrounding the Cathédrale St-Pierre.



It was then down to the Parc des Bastions, which was bustling with people strolling under the yellow and red tree canopies, playing intense games on the giant chess and checker boards or just hanging out by the carved statue, of Geneva's founding fathers, set in the wall of the park.





A quick hot drink at the bohemian Cafe Art's was enjoyed before Angela, Albert and Tim had to head back to London to start their work week on Monday.

Sunday night dinner in Geneva was a bit of a challenge. As not much is open on Sunday in Geneva, a decent dinner place (that wasn't a restaurant in a 5-start hotel) was not the easiest to source. Myles, Adam and I took to the evening streets as Tom and Geoff power napped back at the hotel. On our final night in Geneva, we ended up at a cosy traditional Swiss restaurant, Auberge de Saviese and enjoyed hearty steaks and bakes polished off with vino and of course dessert.


Monday saw Geneva at her best. Basked under warm sunshine and clear blue skies, made for very mild temperatures for Autumn. Geoff and Tom rented bikes for a ride around the lake, while Myles and I decided to hit the shops. We visited (after getting lost) the cute suburb of Carouge, but only found one boutique open on its lovely streets.


We took the tram back to the city to Manor, the big department store with one of the most fabulous 'food courts' we've ever seen. The food was beautifully presented, beautifully coloured and so fresh, it was hard to decide what to have for lunch.




We took a sun drenched table by the window where we could see over the Geneva rooftops, the Jet d'Eau (the city's famous water fountain), the Cathédrale St-Pierre and even the white tipped alps in the distance. After lunch, a quick visit to the chocolate shop (one cannot leave Switzerland without chocolate) saw the girls and guys split to make our way up to the Old Town for, you guessed it, more food!

Photo by Tom

While the guys rode their bikes, Myles and I found our way on foot, to the city's shopping strip, which looked uncannily like Bourke St, Melbourne with its long shop-lined avenues and trams that rattled down both sides of the street. The shops weren't really inspiring us, and like food in Geneva, things were pretty expensive. So we walked up the cobbled hill to the Old Town to meet the guys at the cafe we spied the day before whose windows boasted hand-made chocolate treats.


We took a seat in the square, by the fountain for cafe au laits and chocolate while the sun was sinking in the blue sky, savouring our last moments in the serene city of Geneva.


Some tips on visiting Geneva

• At the airport, one can get a free bus or train to the city (the airport is only 4 km from the city and it only takes 6 minutes by train). Look for the machine which will print a small ticket or visit the airport's website for information
• The free transport doesn't stop there. As a visitor to Geneva, your hotel should issue you with a transport pass which allows you free use of public transport (trams, trains and buses) all over the city for the duration of your stay
  
• Carry your passport with you at all times as you never know when you might want to cross the border into France (having said that, when traveling, we always carry our passports with us as it is the most recognised form of identity)
• When you cross the border, Swiss francs are no longer the currency and some places might only accept Euros so good idea to have some with you
  
• Food is quite expensive in Geneva, drinks are even more
• A lot of Geneva is closed on Sunday, but most of the Old Town is open
• The Old Town is one of the most charming places to visit in the city. Highly recommend relaxing with coffees at the cafes in the square
• You can only have fondue once over a weekend (any more and that might put you off cheese for the rest of your life)
• Can't recommend the Kipling Hotel enough for great rooms, great front desk service and great prices through Expedia
• The guys loved renting bikes to see Geneva. Rent one for 12 francs (with a 20 franc deposit which you get back when the bike is returned)

Additional links
For more Geneva holiday snaps check out Tom's photos here.