Stop … and smell the roses
February 24th, 2008 Posted in Pets Guide A new guidebook encourages travellers to take it easy in
a city that likes things fast, writes Dan Goldberg.
Memo to all Sydneysiders hurtling through life at breakneck
speed: help is at hand. Wittingly or unwittingly, most of us
urbanites have been sucked into the stampede in the race towards
cyberspace.
So wired have we become in this brave new world that we miss the
simple, natural, sensual wonders of life.
So predisposed are we in this global village to seek holidays
abroad that we completely bypass the beauty of our own
backyard.
It’s cliched but true: most of us have seen more of other
countries than our own. Even in our own city, the majority of us
are so busy bulldozing our way towards our destination that we
overlook the joys of the journey.
Which is why The Slow Guide To Sydney is a refreshing
addition to the tomes of fast-paced travel guides that occupy
entire sections of bookshops. Published late last year, The Slow
Guide is a counter-cultural riposte to the century of consumerism,
a kind of thumbing of the nose at the era of the ether and a
discreet nod to those seeking to reconnect with their immediate
surrounds.
There are no listings of internet cafes, no index of hip hotels
that host the A-list and no reviews of the top 10 places to moor
your 100-foot yacht.
Instead, the guide focuses on those things we used to revel in
before the IT revolution ushered in the generation of the gigabyte.
It lists the sanctuaries in the city where you can rewind to the
past or simply pause to ponder the bounty on our doorstep.
In a sense, it takes the polar position to Lonely Planet’s
fast-paced, checklist-based approach to travel. Which is hardly
surprising since The Slow Guide is the brainchild of
Martin Hughes, a former author and editor of Lonely Planet
guides.
After his stint at Lonely Planet headquarters in Melbourne, the
36-year-old Irishman spent three years editing The Big
Issue, a magazine that contributes - literally - to the
community.
So it was a small step, rather than a giant leap, for Hughes
when he ambled into the slow world last year as the head of Affirm
Press, a new publisher in the Australian market. “I wrote
guidebooks for Lonely Planet for years, parachuting into European
cities and hungrily taking them all in,” he says.
“I’d invariably have to delete all the material that I liked
most - the sense of places, the atmosphere, the little things -
because I had to provide straightforward information for tourists.
Instead of steering you towards new things to see and do, The Slow
Guide is more about new ways of actually seeing and being.
Essentially, it’s a lifestyle guide that looks at every aspect of
local life through a sumptuously slow lens.”
He says he loves the city and moving to greener pastures is as
impractical for him as it is for most of the rest of us. “So I
tried to devise a way of having a sea change without shifting
postcodes,” he says.
Hughes, who wrote The Slow Guide To Melbourne, also
published last year, recruited Helen Hawkes, author and former
deputy editor of Cosmopolitan, as the book’s main Sydney author.
She collaborated with journalist Leta Keens and veteran Sydney
photographer Oliver Strewe. “The result is 224 pages designed to
ignite or reignite your love affair with Sydney,” writes Hawkes in
the introduction. “We live in a city that absolutely vibrates with
nature, culture, humanity and joy.”
A self-described proponent of the slow movement, Hawkes
currently lives on the Central Coast where she is a freelance
writer while lending her hand to permaculture.
“We thought it wouldn’t be too hard but it actually took about
six months to write,” Hawkes says. “It really was a labour of love.
It’s geared towards residents and tourists. It’s not a conventional
mass-market guidebook; it’s about rediscovering the city.
“I think there’s a lot of people who think, ‘How long can I keep
this [pace] up? Is this the way I’m meant to live my life?’ I was
surprised and I think people who read the book will be surprised.
We all have a picture of Sydney in our minds.
“But to rediscover it as a multicultural destination full of
art, culture and community interaction is not so much surprising
but thrilling.”
Hawkes says the book focuses on the senses. The sights, smells
and sounds of Sydney and her taste and touch all combine to endear
and enchant us, she says.
Among the more curious and colourful slow destinations listed in
the guide are: Newtown’s Buddha Bar Healing Clinic, described as a
“sanctuary of calm amid inner-city chaos”; the memorial to the
Irish famine at Hyde Park Barracks; and the secret garden in
Milsons Point, a place “ribboned with stairways and narrow pathways
that has the miraculous effect of turning you into a six-year-old
again”.
Hughes says: “In an increasingly uniform and rushed world, The
Slow Guide is about taking a step back and appreciating all that’s
local, natural, sensory, traditional and, most of all, gratifying
about living in Sydney.” And if critics suggest it’s an original
concept with unoriginal content?
“I don’t think everything in there has been written about
before,” Hawkes says. “Anybody who gets the book could find at
least 12 things to do or try they haven’t done before even if they
have lived in Sydney all their lives.”
The photographs, all in black and white, tell their own stories,
too. Sydney photographer Strewe, who has been honing his craft
since the 1970s, says the experience of capturing slow Sydney was
illuminating.
“You wouldn’t think there is a slow side to a big city like
Sydney but it’s there if you want,” he says, “and I didn’t have any
trouble finding it or enjoying what it had to offer. I met a lot of
fantastic people doing great things like making red wine in their
backyard and others who were running a business that the family had
started 100 years ago.”
And while The Slow Guide is more practical travel guide
than coffee-table book, Strewe is pleased with the quality of the
production. “There’s a glut of glossy books and magazines out there
and we wanted The Slow Guide to feel more natural, without
compromising on quality,” he says.
“And perhaps what’s most important is that it was printed in
Australia. Most books produced here are printed in Asia but we
wanted to ensure everything about the publication had a positive
impact on the community so we paid a little extra to keep the
business at home.”
And herein, perhaps, lies the secret of The Slow Guide.
It is a passport to holidaying at home with no customs, airport
taxes, currency conversions or luggage to haul. If indeed life is
about the journey not the destination, then consider trading your
compass for a copy of The Slow Guide.
FIVE FAVOURITES
Helen Hawkes and Leeta Keens share their favourite slow
destinations in Sydney.
1. Sydney’s northern beaches, including Long
Reef, where if you stop and sit to smell the ocean breeze for long
enough you can see sooty oystercatchers - large shorebirds with
bright orange bills and pink legs and feet. Take your surfboard to
catch some of the local breaks and have lunch at any one of the
cafes that dot the road that runs right up to Palm Beach.
2. Salvio’s Dancing Shoes in St Pauls Street,
Randwick, where you can have dancing shoes such as ballet pumps and
flamenco shoes made just for you. Clients have included Opera
Australia and the Moscow Circus.
3. Delicado Foods on Blues Point Road in
McMahons Point is a little bit of Spain in Sydney. It’s run by Ben
Moechtar, president of the Australian Sommeliers Association. Ben
not only makes great coffee and food - he’ll even do you a picnic
hamper - but also sells hard-to-get Spanish deli produce and
whimsical homewares and accessories.
4. A walk along Bourke Street, Surry Hills,
with detours to the Bourke St Bakery, the Brett Whiteley Studio and
McElhone Place, one of Sydney’s sweetest streets. It’s an oasis of
frangipani, oleanders, bougainvillea, roses and gardenias.
5. The Broomfield Memorial Dog Drinking
Fountain in Lavender Bay. Young sculptor Clary Akon created the
perky Australian terrier that sits on top and, yes, your
four-legged friends can drink from the fountain.
Source: The Sun-Herald
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