More Journalling and a Meeting in Wellington
While I was away in the US I kept fairly well up-to-date with a travel blog (on my father's travel blog, in fact) and I find I really enjoy looking back over the photos and a notes about what I did each day. I'm not entirely sure Life At Home will be as interesting to look back on but I thought I would make an effort to do more in my LJ and see what I think. I have a bit of time in hand but thought I could journal my way through my 'year of turning 50' as a bit of a project. (Forty-nine this birthday, in December, so this is a 13+ month practice run.)
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I've been away in Wellington for a meeting of the Breed Standards Advisory Committee for the New Zealand Cat Fancy, a.k.a. 'cat stuff'. About 15 months ago the NZCF asked for expressions of interest in being on this committee and though I was ridiculously under-qualified (met one of the criteria and promised to be a willing member of the team) I was appointed to the position. It's been very interesting but along with all the other cat stuff I'm involved with it has been too much of a drain on my time. I am staging a phased retreat from 'cat stuff'; off the BSAC on 31 December 2013, finish the project to rewrite the NZCF publications in June 2014, and end my term on the Palmerston North Cat Club committee in February 2015. There are some plans for some run-on work - offering to be the amendment officer for the publications once the project is over and to continue as the webmaster for the PNCC, but both of those are very small jobs and I'll get most of my time back.
So, that's the background.
On Friday we had our first face-to-face meeting of the BSAC in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Before we left on our holiday Wellington had been having a few issues with earthquakes so I wasn't entirely thrilled to find I was accommodated on the 10th floor of the hotel, though I did have a bit of a view:
Please excuse the smudge in the middle of the photo - the windows were dirty! I even had a view of a sliver of Wellington Harbour:
I had taken the bus down to Wellington which is a two-hour drive away from us here in Palmerston North. (Although I toddle around Palmie in my little two-seater Smart-car I'm not that confident a driver that I want to drive a hundred mile each way in it.) The people travelling on the bus were an interesting-looking crowd; I wonder if we're all non-drivers or whether for some there are financial considerations at work as well.
The meeting started at 4pm and went through to 7.30, then we resumed at 8.30am Saturday morning and went to 3.30 with an hour off for lunch. I was both secretary for the meeting and operator of the Skype connection to two other members of the committee who had been unable to come down from Auckland.
From the left: Maree, Sue, Margaret, Roy's shoulder, and I am in the mirror.
It was a very productive meeting - or will have been when I get the minutes written up and can remind all of us what jobs we had to do in follow-up. :o)
Saturday morning was fine and clear and I got an even better view from my room window:
By the afternoon, though, there was a cold, gusty wind blowing and the delay of 1.5 hours on the railway platform at Wellington Railway Station waiting for the a replacement bus to arrive wasn't all that pleasant. I got home at 10.30pm.
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I've been away in Wellington for a meeting of the Breed Standards Advisory Committee for the New Zealand Cat Fancy, a.k.a. 'cat stuff'. About 15 months ago the NZCF asked for expressions of interest in being on this committee and though I was ridiculously under-qualified (met one of the criteria and promised to be a willing member of the team) I was appointed to the position. It's been very interesting but along with all the other cat stuff I'm involved with it has been too much of a drain on my time. I am staging a phased retreat from 'cat stuff'; off the BSAC on 31 December 2013, finish the project to rewrite the NZCF publications in June 2014, and end my term on the Palmerston North Cat Club committee in February 2015. There are some plans for some run-on work - offering to be the amendment officer for the publications once the project is over and to continue as the webmaster for the PNCC, but both of those are very small jobs and I'll get most of my time back.
So, that's the background.
On Friday we had our first face-to-face meeting of the BSAC in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Before we left on our holiday Wellington had been having a few issues with earthquakes so I wasn't entirely thrilled to find I was accommodated on the 10th floor of the hotel, though I did have a bit of a view:
Please excuse the smudge in the middle of the photo - the windows were dirty! I even had a view of a sliver of Wellington Harbour:
I had taken the bus down to Wellington which is a two-hour drive away from us here in Palmerston North. (Although I toddle around Palmie in my little two-seater Smart-car I'm not that confident a driver that I want to drive a hundred mile each way in it.) The people travelling on the bus were an interesting-looking crowd; I wonder if we're all non-drivers or whether for some there are financial considerations at work as well.
The meeting started at 4pm and went through to 7.30, then we resumed at 8.30am Saturday morning and went to 3.30 with an hour off for lunch. I was both secretary for the meeting and operator of the Skype connection to two other members of the committee who had been unable to come down from Auckland.
From the left: Maree, Sue, Margaret, Roy's shoulder, and I am in the mirror.
It was a very productive meeting - or will have been when I get the minutes written up and can remind all of us what jobs we had to do in follow-up. :o)
Saturday morning was fine and clear and I got an even better view from my room window:
By the afternoon, though, there was a cold, gusty wind blowing and the delay of 1.5 hours on the railway platform at Wellington Railway Station waiting for the a replacement bus to arrive wasn't all that pleasant. I got home at 10.30pm.
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