My 60th Birthday party was a blast. So as not to wait another decade till the next one, I thought I’d do it annually. But to disguise the naked egotism of it I decided to raise money for a Good Cause. And the cause is Urban Refugees founded by Sonia Ben Ali who flew in at the right time for my 60th. (Can’t celebrate a milestone without a social innovator flying in from Paris.)
Anyhow, the thing is, Sonia is back in Australia next week. We were thinking of holding a genteel dinner with billionaires wives and their blue rinse to get them all to pitch in a few thousand, and have charity lunches, but then we realised that neither Sonia nor I knew any billionaires or their wives.
So I just thought, “what the heck, let’s get this baby off the ground”. So on Thursday 22nd June, you’re invited to a fantastic party in Melbourne with a whole lot of fantastically interesting people I know. (Seriously, there are some fascinating people there I promise! There even other Troppodillians there!)
It will mostly be dinner and party, but you’ll hear a little about the cause from me, from Sonia and from Nemat Ahmadi, a newly arrived Afghan refugee who has made his way to Melbourne from Urban Refugees’ base in Malaysia!
We’re inviting you to pay your way with $50 for the dinner with drinks purchased at the bar. So Book Now on this link.
I’m also hoping you can donate and will match every dollar of yours over $100 up to a total liability of $5,000 for me. (Ross Gittins has already decided to play hard-ball and try to bankrupt me so this matching pool is now down to $4,100! Bring it on I say! We can always mortgage the yacht.)
One final thing, if you’d like to donate, we’re in the process of getting tax deductibility and so if that matters to you, the best way of donating is make a comment below (or if you want to hide your generosity under a bushel), email me on ngruen AT gmail and I’ll make sure Urban Refugees gets back to you when we can issue a tax deductible receipt. I’d hope we can do it before the end of the financial year.
Looking forward to seeing yous all there!
And please pass this around.
A lagged happy 60th Nick, you and John Quiggin are the same age if not the same intellect!
And in the same city right now or around now judging by his appearance at some Fabian function down here!
Actually you both have the touch of old fashioned fabian intellectuals, I hope your venture prospers
I’m not old fashioned. I’m incredibly groovy. Harry Styles is refusing to tour Australia unless I meet him. Frankly I’m yet to be convinced.
I have a mental image of a bankrupt and homeless Nick running away from Doyle’s goons desperately clutching a cardboard “will economics for food” sign :)
I have just done my donations for the year but the above image is too good to miss… $103.68 ($US76) in the hat for you, good sir! Sadly my private jet is away being serviced so I won’t be able to make it to the dinner.
Happy , belated birthday!
Will chuck some in the plate.
happy birthday, Nick. I am afraid I wont be able to make it to your soiree because my Troppo-jet is currently lent to the survivors of the various disasters here in London, but I will be there in spirit.
May your happiness top the Hale-scale!
[…] It was sad that my son Alex couldn’t be there – but he was chasing glory amongst Ivy League universities of New England in middle distance running preparing for greater things. Better him than me. And I loved the speeches and am honoured to call all the cuties giving them friends. You can watch them in the videos above. And if you’ve been paying close attention to Troppo, you’ll understand that I’m making the event an annual one – with a few changes from this one. Indeed, we’ve already had our first annual reunion precisely two months from the original event. […]