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‘When I was 15, a lady came to our school and spoke about exchange programs so I went and spent a year in Costa Rica. I did my year 10 in Costa Rica and learnt to speak Spanish and lived with a local family there. We lived in the mountains surrounded by coffee fields. Before I went, I didn’t speak Spanish or anything so I didn’t really know what was going on. It was a poor school – 3,000 students with just a couple of teachers and none of them would turn up. No one really cared.
‘There was one teacher; she was a biology teacher, and she really cared that I understood what was going on and that I actually learnt. She told me to go and buy some rope and some paint and she taught me to make a really thick rope – like macramé. She was teaching us about DNA so it looked like a DNA thing. So I made a really big one – she taught me how to make it – and she told me to paint this knot blue and this knot green and I did everything she said and at the end she was able to explain all the parts of the DNA. To this day, I still only know them in Spanish.
‘Then she told me to go buy some smaller string so I could make bracelets for my friends and family. This is the jewellery I make and sell now.’

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‘My philosophy in life is to live life to the fullest, to love and be empathetic and to spread that.’
Can you tell me about a time when you’ve found it difficult to be empathetic?

‘Recently I was on a train and I was in a lot of physical pain – I had a bad injury to my leg. I sat down in the area for disabled people and someone was actually racing me to the seat. I ended up getting there first b…ut they got very angry with me. The way that they talked to me was very sad. Looking at me, you couldn’t tell that I was injured and that person wouldn’t know. To be understanding of their anger as well while still feeling my pain and not lashing out at them was really difficult.’

What kind of message would you give to someone like that?

‘Think twice. There might be a reason as to why someone is doing something. Sometimes you don’t need to question them just go with it.’

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‘I want to go to England and open a gallery in London with the world’s largest painting. It’s a magical portal between the worlds with a very magical subject.’

How big is the painting?

‘About six storeys. We’ll paint it on canvas in Dublin and offer it to the English as a peace offering. I can’t say right now which building we plan to put it on but it’s an old power station. …

‘We’re going to bring some of Princess Diana’s energy back to a world that needs it.

‘The whole ethos behind the gallery is to take art away from the elitist club and to celebrate and promote art of ordinary people. Such as exhibitions of portraits painted with materials of canvas provided by the gallery to the disabled, the homeless, elderly, people with terminal illness – anyone you can think of who Diana supported during her time here.

“’he idea is to bring art to the public through the people who popular culture likes to sweep under the rug and pretend that they’re not there. The gallery is more about infusing our culture with a sense of self-worth based upon what we can create within ourselves as an individual but also as a collective.

‘It will be called the Princess of Whales Gallery (as in dolphins and whales). If Sea Shepherd or anyone else wants to come along and offer their support and be supported in return then they’re welcome to approach us.’

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‘I grew up in an era in the 1980s where you’d leave the Sutherland Shire and come in to the city and see half a dozen bands on the way. Poker machines came in the 1990s and destroyed the music industry in Sydney. We’re here to revitalise it.

‘We’re protectors of our heritage so to speak. I personally think that it’s my obligation as an owner of the building to see it live on for the next genera…tion and generations to come.

‘We’re in the process of looking at about four Australian companies that are interested in leasing it.’

Is there anything in particular that whoever gets the contract, you would like to see the do?

‘As long as they’re Australian and they keep it live entertainment here whether it’s theatre, Vaudeville or whatever.

‘Three stipulating points – the back outside wall will belong to the artist (who just completed his artwork today) for as long as he can paint and the other artists that have used that wall – they’re Australian. They have to use the painter that I’ve commissioned to paint the building and my electrician because he knows it inside out.

‘The huge ceiling lights took us about two months each to restore. In 1999 a hailstorm went through this place and did close to $700,000 worth of damage to everything. It was a swimming pool down here. We never really restored the lights properly – we just sort of temporarily restored them. We’ve spent so much money here now doing the restoration, we decided to spend some time on the lights. We got geniuses in plaster work and basically remoulded them, fixed them up and rewired them. They’re all LED now. That’s the only thing that’s changed in here simply because the first three on each side used to come down to the ground so you could change the globes and then they would be winched back up. We didn’t want them touched any more. If there’s loud music in here we don’t want them rattling and falling down. They’re an important part of the architecture in here.

‘The architect that built this place is responsible for around 2,000 buildings in Sydney. He built the Grace Bros Broadway building. The Hub falls in to the P&O style where the patron would come to the cinema and get ‘taken away’ on a boat. Hence the round circles at the top and the front. They’d come in here and they’d feel like they were going away on a cruise. People needed escapism so theatre was killing it back then.

‘I’m enjoying the work here. It’s our building so it’s a labour of love. I’ve been working on it for two years now. Why wouldn’t you do it up? It’s such a beautiful building.’

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‘I miss the openness of people in Ecuador – the warmth. They have less money but they have big hearts and big souls and are ready to take you in at any moment. Here it’s a bit colder. This is why I lived in Newtown for so long because it kind of reminded me of that open attitude that South America has.’

What advice would you give Australians about how to improve their lifestyle based on life in Ecuador?

‘Know your neighbour and look at people in the eyes. Give people real hugs. Feel them – don’t just do it because it’s a social courtesy to do it. And just relax a little bit. Stop thinking so much about money and travel as much as you can.’

Do you know your neighbours?

‘I try to but they won’t even look at me in the eyes so I can’t! They won’t even look at me so it’s really hard to even crack a smile.

‘If you just smile at one person they might be having a crappy day and might not smile back. You might feel a little bit sensitive about it but they feel the warmth and they’re probably more likely to smile at the next person they meet. It’s about making a difference in the world step by step. You don’t have to do huge amazing things.’

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‘When our kids were young, I tended to be the bad cop and he was the good cop but then it swapped when they were teenagers and he became the bad cop and I became the good cop.’

‘I think social media and the internet has put so much extra pressure on kids growing up. There is too much happening and there is too much opportunity for bullying and that kind of thing. Life’s just getting so complicate…d really. I found that daunting. And I think kids are under more pressure these days. Everyone’s got to achieve so highly. Where’s the old playing outside kind of lifestyle?’

Is that something you try to instil in your students?

‘I try to but it’s virtually impossible. I teach at a selective school and the kids are highly motivated and pressured by their parents. They’ve been going to coaching college since they were about five. So a voice against all of that pressure is pretty weak really but I try.’

street photography

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‘It’s a form of escape for me. I really love baking – it’s my passion. I work with ATMs during the week so it’s completely different.

“t started as a form of stress relief when I was at Uni. Whenever I would bring cupcakes in, my friends would ask if I was stressed again. When I’m stressed, I make cupcakes at 3am.

”I also bring them in to work and my colleagues know that I’ve been stressed. It’s the creative part of baking that de-stresses me.

When they smell nice that’s when I know that I’ve done well. When they’re all gone by the end of Saturday, I know that I’ve made it!”