In January, 1986 I vowed never again to teach Alexander-style chair and table work.

For the first year of my teaching after Marj visit to Sydney, my old students discovered there would be no more table work.

New students never knew the difference, but the old students didn’t like it:

My future brother-in-law accompanied Marjorie Barstow’s (1899~1996) on her first trip to Australia in 1986. I organised it with my sister, and we kicked off the visit with a teachers’ workshop in the Snowy Mountains.

The venue did not have enough space, so I hired a colossal tent to conduct the workshops. Then it rained and rained – the tent leaked – and by day two, we were in the workshop space that I had deemed too small.

“Chance, when I saw you driving under the window with your head held high, with that terrible stiff-necked pride of the defeated which I know so well; I knew that your comeback had been a failure like mine.”

Alexandra Del Lago in Tennesse William’s “Sweet Bird of Youth”.

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