I am unsure about writing this blog but the news has been so public about the loss of my beautiful son Blair, and the interest so intense, that I wanted to share the facts. Also, we do have something to celebrate with the upcoming screening of the seven part TV series Lyndey & Blair’s Taste of Greece which I was lucky enough to shoot with him last year. It starts on Thursday May 26 at 8pm on SBS nationally. Click here to follow on Facebook.
Blair died suddenly from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in the early hours of Sunday 17 April. He was taken ill on the previous Thursday and rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. I was overseas with my partner John and flew back immediately. By the time I arrived on the Saturday morning he was medically sedated on a ventilator in intensive care. Blair’s father, Nigel, had been with him from the Thursday and was magnificent, as was the hospital. We spent a precious 17½ hours at his bedside. There were 30 people in the waiting room, another 30 outside and even more old school friends at the pub! Blair would be pleased.
He was the most positive person I had ever met, and it was a joy and a privilege to have been his mother.
Blair’s friends and family flew in from around the globe. A bunch of his Charles Sturt University friends set up in our offices at the Sydney Studio Kitchen and spent a fortnight producing audio visual tributes. Ultimately Blair was farewelled in a heartfelt service in the chapel of his old school, Barker College on Saturday 30 April with an audience of 800 packed inside and also standing outside in the pouring rain. Several of us near and dear spoke at the service and Blair’s sister Lucy who flew in from London, and a close friend sang beautifully. A celebration followed at Sydney Theatre which culminated in theatre-style tributes by many of his friends. They sang, read poetry and spoke of their love for Blair. The finale was this appropriately upbeat, for Blair was a party man, video compilation put together by his friends from Charles Sturt University.
Tribute from
Lyndey Milan on
Vimeo.
There are a few very exciting things happening at the moment and I wanted to share them with you.
In December Lyndey Milan Enterprises is launching a dedicated facility for culinary and lifestyle filming and photography in Artarmon, to be called the Sydney Studio Kitchen. The studio will feature kitchen and lifestyle sets with clever customised, interchangeable components and equipment. There will also be crew and other services for hire. The studio aims to meet the needs of advertising agencies and production companies which demand not just an elevated sense of design and functionality to enhance a product or a program’s identity, but also deliver production efficiencies. Also the set can look different for different clients!
As well as providing an innovative environment to showcase brands and shoot television content, we will also provide post production solutions with a fully equipped edit suite on site.
Upstairs will house the headquarters of Lyndey Milan Enterprises.
The other noteworthy project is the production company we have created to focus on unique television offers that will be filmed and marketed around the world. More about that soon…
While the core of my business (and life!) will always be my enduring love for all things gastronomic – food, wine, people and telling the stories behind them, I am thrilled that my new business ventures combine perfectly to fuel that love.
Lastly, with all this work … I’ve decided to leave ACP Magazines. I’ve loved my ten plus years at The Australian Women’s Weekly but feel now is the time to focus on these exciting projects. I will, of course, continue to appear regularly on Kerri-Anne on the Nine Network and will be sharing my new media commitments with you very soon.
Exciting times ahead!
