As you know, we recently sponsored George Hardie on a nationwide tour of Australia, a tour which included the AGIdeas conference in Melbourne. Sydney was George's last presentation and as a consequence, as part of my introduction to his talk, I worked out that by the time he and and his wife Avril returned home in Chichester, they would have travelled an amazing 37,672 kms.

Now for those of you who attended George's talks, you'll remember that rulers are amongst the huge number of things he collects. Therefore with an interest in things that measure distance, I also pointed out to them both that 37,672 kms translated to 23,382 miles and more interestingly to 41,152,320 yards...and with the Ashes series coming up this summer, this was the equivalent of 1,870,560 cricket pitches!

I only mention all this because I want to share with you the really beautiful illustration we commissioned as AGDA's 'thank you' present to George. With no lead time, a very short deadline and a very loose brief, it was designed and created by one of Australia's leading illustrators, Nigel Buchanan (http://www.nigelbuchanan.com). The original is 160mm square and is printed on archival quality paper.

George completely and utterly loves it.

Thank you Nigel...and thank you George for the inspiration and warmth you shared with us all.

Simon

Simon Pemberton
AGDA National President