... some of whom I wish I hadn't. This is my chance to drop some names and hope that not too many of them are bruised in the fall^[1]:

• Cleaver Bunton (when he was Mayor of Albury) • Margaret Reynolds • Norm Sanders • Natasha Stott Despoja • Michael Tate

• Russell Broadbent • Anna Burke • Peter Cleeland • Manfred Cross • Steve Dargavel • Teresa Gambaro • Peter Garrett • Bob Hawke • Billy Hughes's great-granddaughter [1] • Tony Lamb • Michael Lee • Paul Marek • Peter Morris • Ian Sinclair • Peter Steedman

• Morris Iemma • Greg Piper (my brother's brother-in-law) • Michael Yabsley

• Jordan Crugnale

• Wayne Goss

• Geoff Gallop

• Wayne Berry • Bernard Collaery • Simon Corbell's father • Deb Foskey

• Shane Stone

• Louise Hand • Patti Warn
• I may have met Peter Hendy, but I certainly spoke with him by phone more than a few times. Same applies to Gerard Henderson, Grahame Morris and Barry O'Farrell.

• Lyn Barlin • Martin Bonsey • Dawn Casey • Michael D'Ascenzo • Phil Diak • Paul Dibb • Darcy McGaurr • Prof Michael Pitman • Abul Rizvi • Ray Robinson • George Savvides • Peter Shergold • Richard Smith • Neville Stevens • Mark Sullivan • George Thompson • Phillip Toyne • Ray Trebilco • Richard Woolcott

• John Kelly • Michael Kirby

• David Bowman • Michelle Grattan • Bruce Juddery • Gary Scully • Greg Turnbull • Colin Tyrus, [2], [3] • James Valentine

• Neil Batt • Tim Costello • Mick Dodson • Ross Garnaut's wife • Roger Holdich • Joseph Lo Bianco • Emeritus Professor David G. Marr • Bob Santamaria's nephew • Wayne Sievers • Robbie Swan

• Antonio de Almeida • Nicholas Braithwaite • Leonard Dommett • Tobias Foskett • Myer Fredman's son • William "Bill" Hawkey • John Hopkins • Sir Charles Mackerras • Sir Neville Marriner • Joseph Post • Ezra Rachlin • Stanford Robinson

• Claudio Arrau • John Chen • Colin Forbes • Judy Hall • Geoffrey Lancaster • Stanislas Niedzielski • Rafael Orozco • Geoffrey Parsons • Ewa Pobłocka • Melvyn Tan • Geoffrey Tozer • Roger Woodward's sister-in-law

• Peter Garrett • Eishi Kawamura • Elisabeth Schwarzkopf • Oleh Witer (my son's godmother's brother)

• Larry Sitsky • Zvi Zeitlin

• Jason Ball • Leigh Brown's mother • Billy Brownless • Jackson Fear • Don Furner • Terry Gathercole • Sam Gilbert • George Gregan • Tom Hickey • Stephen Hodge's step-mother • Stephen Larkham • Mark McLinden • Ricky Stuart • Carl Valeri's parents

• G. W. Bot • Conrad Clark (artist, sculptor; son of Edward Clark and Elisabeth Lutyens, and grandson of Sir Edwin Lutyens) • Sasha Grishin • Brian Kennedy (gallery director)

• Nicole Alexander • Basia Bonkowski • Benita Collings • Shane Dundas • Penne Hackforth-Jones's sister • Eddie McGuire • Ray Martin • Michael Pope (producer)

• Milton Black • Pierre Cardin's second cousin (his brother-in-law's wife was my son's godmother) • Archbishop Francis Carroll • John Clanchy's ex-wife • David Eastman • Terry Gwynn-Jones • Jean Houston • Prof Peter Karmel • Lady Keys • Don Laycock • Malcolm Mackerras • Sir John Overall • Charmaine Solomon • Prof Peter Taylor • Dr Douglas Waterhouse • Charles Waterstreet's mother

• During his lifetime, I swam in the same swimming pool at the Otters Club in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that Sir Arthur C. Clarke regularly used. For the purposes of utterly shameless name-dropping, I count this as aquataneous extra-biological contact.
• Although I never met him face to face, I did have some phone conversations with Sir Walter Scott as part of my job. I thought the last one went well, but he chose to make an official complaint against me. You never can tell. I also spoke to Franco Belgiorno-Nettis a few times by phone but never came face to face with him.

• Bruce Chatwin • John Curtin • Albert Einstein • Gerard Hoffnung • Martin Luther King Jr. • T. E. Lawrence • Michael Leunig • Dorothea Mackellar • Nelson Mandela • Nicolas Slonimsky • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky • Leo Tolstoy • Vincent van Gogh • Giuseppe Verdi • Orson Welles • Gough Whitlam • Oscar Wilde