(for ubudnowandthen.com)
I first met John Darling
in 1976 at a posh all-men’s tennis afternoon in Killara, a fashionable garden
suburb of Sydney Australia
Everything that Rio and Diana have said about him is correct but they
omitted, out of courtesy I imagine, to mention what a narcissist Johnny was —
but in nice not a nasty way.
Under all that aesthete
and ascetic lurked a giant ego, and a fairly healthy disregard for other
people’s time and whiskey. He was a natty dresser too — favouring the grey
shoes of his academic up-bringing teamed with a plaited belt to exaggerated his
snake hips. I don’t think I ever saw him in a short-sleeved shirt.
In 1985 Australian actress
Arna-Maria Winchester made him the first Sawu-blanket jacket with coconut shell
button which I bet he wore in hospital on his death bed whilst listening to the gamelan music he
loved so much.
In the early 1980s I
visited Johnny’s exquisitely Middle Earth ‘pondok plus’ every Sunday morning: he
was the only person I knew with bread, Blue Brand and Vegemite. He would wile
the day away gardening and listening to the cricket on his transistor radio
while I would lie, seductively, on some hessian pillows, waiting for Rio to turn up.
You know now, almost 35
years later, there are still women at the Yoga Barn doing the same thing!
In the mid 1980s Johnny
and Ian Van Wieringen and I became “The Three Bli(s)” dedicating our lives to late
nights in Legian and Legong. A famous leg shot (attached) is a survivor from this
era. We were like culture-conscious cat-burglars: Van got all the girls, Johnny
all the grants and I caught the crabs.
Johnny was brilliant at getting
grants: he deserved a leg-up as his business sense was poor and his understanding
of the real Bali and his poetic vision were
unique.
He was a great mentor to
me in all my encore careers —since
failure to become Wimbledon tennis champion at age 16 — even in my
latest incarnation as a barefoot documentary film-maker doing just the sort of
films Johnny used to make, but in 24 hours and in lower definition. “It took me
20 years to learn to do that, “he said“, and you’ve done 100 films in 3
months.”
He was like my Dad in
this way, always supportive and kind
I think I was best man at
both his weddings.
We still call Diana ‘Lady
Di’ because she thought she was getting a title with her slice of pavlova.
At his second wedding
reception I thanked the people at Pfizer, Roche, Kalbe Farma and Merck and Co,
and his beloved Sara, for keeping him alive.
