From Our Archive | Lola’s Daisy Chain

From Our Archive | Lola’s Daisy Chain

Our 20 year old daughter Lola was up from Melbourne to attend her friend Lucy’s 21st last week. She joked to us that her friends in Melbourne were waiting for her to rate an appearance in Bondi Fresh Daily, and that the omnipresence of Roman made it appear as if we were in fact a one child family. Where was Lola?

Also, the annual Sculpture by the Sea event finishes up this weekend.

Mashing these two thoughts together we decided today to tell you a story from our own family archive, and that is the story of Lola’s Daisy Chain.

In 2004 the then nine-year-old Lola decided that she wanted to submit something for that year’s Sculpture by the Sea. At the time we lived in a rented house at Tamarama, overlooking the coastal walk, and Melanie would often take Lola on walks to pick the daisies.

The Daisy Chain was her first idea … and what an idea.

The chain of 35,000 custom-made polyester silk daisies, the purchase of which was underwritten by her godfather Dare Jennings and supported by friends, family and acquaintances (including, as a topical aside, Malcolm & Lucy Turnbull), ran the entire 1.5km stretch, extending from the south end of Tamarama Beach … all the way to the Bondi Icebergs, and thanks to our long relationship with restaurateur Maurice Terzini, actually all the way through the iconic Icebergs Dining Room and Bar.

The project involved hundreds of people and thousands of hours. It became a real local community endeavour.

The experience taught Lola a valuable lesson, and reminded us all that a good idea is only part of the story. Execution is also crucial, and that execution usually involves a lot of effort from many people.

To celebrate Lola’s Daisy Chain we naturally produced a REMO T shirt which faithfully quotes words from her Artist’s Statement:

“I like daisy chains because you start with something little, and end up with something big.”