on the road

again....

Well in the air cause Palmerston North is far, far away and

over the sea from Leeston.

That's the plane I took.

Not a very big plane I know,

it does the trick though.

It's really early in the morning

and I'm in a motel in Palmerston North.

I spend so much time in or around Palmerston North

I should just move here.

Except I can't because that would be insane

because I can't quite figure out why people want to live

in or around Palmerston North

other than they own farms.

I'm in or around Palmerston North

this time because last night was the

Rural Business Network meeting for the Manawatu Hub.

I'm not entirely sure what makes the RBN totally work

but there is a synergy there that is a little magic.

Getting people together,

espcially farmers and then getting them to interact,

to include others,

to connect and share experiences is never easy.

To have meetings that mean something to every one attending

is something special

and we seem to be able to do it.

Regularly.

Last night we asked Tom Phillips of

Pasture to Plate blog ,

one of not many rural New Zealand focused blogs

to explain himself.

Tom is really great.

He spent eons living overseas and has now returned to old NZed

to work for the Centre for Excellence (in Farm Management)

at Massey University.

Tom spends a fair bit of time talking up the whole social media thing,

but from a what it can do for you farmer person perspective.

We also had our own Simon Hunt of Hildale Farms

who tweets and had him explain why he does so.

Also Stacey Cottril of BLACK SHEEP DESIGN

(had to put that in caps cause I accidentally called Stacey's design company Black Dog.

Stacey mentioned that I had done this, rightly so and commented that I needed

a communications agency to help. 

And yes I do. 

But if you were in the comms business would you not jump on the opportunity

to give that a nudge with an offer of help, paid help

or a plan and proposal?

It is just me that sees an opportunity here???

This is a very long bracketted sentence.

Yet another example of my amateur commincations skills)

Stacey gave us a brush up on what different social media do.

Richard Morrison recently sert up an intranet for his farming business

so discussed the hows and whys of doing that.

A good interactive evening for all that attended.

I do have to say how much I like getting picked up

and driven places.

Totally love it when I need to go to places that are up the back of beyond

that I've never been too.

Like the very lovely Orlando Country.

Spudnik picked me up and

we headed over to Feilding to pick up Gazzarama.

Spud and Gazza are both great guys

who are very generous with their time and talents

(that's a Mormon sentence if there ever was)

and nothing is too hard or too far away for them.

I love it that there are good, keen men like them

out there in the wilds being generous, thoughtful and kind.

I'm off to the Wellington now for the PICA launch tonight.

Must remember to shave my legs.

Wellington in the sun

When the weather is good in Wellington,

it's a wonderfully, beautiful place.

And today the weather was fantastic.

I got to Wellington in time

to do a phone interview with Richard 'eye gouger' Loe

on his radio programme right before the noon news.

Ideal timing.

It was three minutes with three decent soundbites

on the Rural Business Network.

I met Jolly and had a quick lunch.

She was quick cause she was half way through her

mail round at the council when I arrived.

(the square outside the Council buildings,

Jolly and I did not have lunch here)

 

And I needed a quick lunch because

I was meeting Heather Roy at 3pm.

 

Heather is an unemployed former Member of Parliament.

She's been out of a job since Saturday

and she did retire so it's not like she lost the election.

 

It was good to catch up with Heather

as a normal person.

MPs are not normal people.

They are hyper busy, into everything,

kind of celebrities who phones go off all the time

and have randoms interrupting conversations.

 

Heather and I met at Foxglove

which was the perfect place on such a fiercely sunny day.

 

After a luxury afternoon

I jumped into the rental car

and headed to Palmerston North

to have a dinner meeting with the boys of the

Rural Business Network.

The drive took longer than I thought it would
but I made it to the Cooperage in time.
Parked brilliantly, leaving a safety margin of a metre
between me and the curb.

In the middle of the RBN strat meeting
I needed to sneak off for a Stake Public Affairs skype meeting.
Ah tu meke pretty much.

Tomorrow?
Well back to Wellington for a five hour
meeting about a NZQA review of all the ag qualifications in the market.
Hmmmmm I wanna go home!

hairdressers and other danger zones

Seriously,

I think I can speak on behalf of most women

when I say

we like our hairdresser.

Otherwise why would we go?

My first favourite hairdresser was gifted.

Alex, who for some reason I think was from Alexandra,

was just fantastic.

She even saved me from a horrible disloyal lopsided haircut

I got from some hideous, newby hairdresser who worked in a salon

I should have known would be dodgy as.

I was in the middle of a "my hair is too thick! Get it off my neck" moment

in the middle of summer.  

Then there was the hairdresser whose salon was purple.

She was magic.

Her instruction to new hair washing assistants

was that the head massage should be orgasmic,

not like an actual orgasm cause that would be awkward

but that they should make your scalp feel awesome.

Though to be fair for woman a good head massage in the morning

would lead to a highly successful evening for some man.

Good lead in time.

Then there was Andreas from Mexico.

Oh he was gooooood.

The perfect cut for my face shape,

the perfect colour,

and the charm and flattery that oozed from that man!

And then he disappeared.

I blame the drug cartels.

Now I have Sarah

who is sweet and lovely.

Doesn't quite understand my hair yet,

as in she wants me to STRAIGHTEN it.

The caps are because I have wavy, curly chin length hair

and I don't suit straightened hair. 

So yesterday we had a wee chat about how I hate flicky hair

and how I suspected that now Farah Fawcett

(Mags always adds Major)

is dead that her hairstyle is looking to be channelled

through my hair.

I warned Sarah that my fringe 

(bangs for Americans, which by the way is totally weird)

would flick up while she was razoring  away.

She said it wouldn't.

I got back to work and

with in 10 minutes Tinky was asking

what the hell happened to my head.

Kimba pinned the flickyness down with a paper clip.

The flicky fringe fought back

and slowly took over the left side of my head.

It only gets worse.

This morning I woke up to my hair exploding from my head.

I brushed it out and it looked like Queenie's hair Blackadder.

So Sarah has won and I've straightened my hair.

I feel blessed to have had plenty of really

great, passionate hairdressers in my lifetime.

We underestimate just how important they are,

and how much information they keep on each of us....

And as a footnote to this hairdresser story,

I was just talking to a woman from a similar group to Young Farmers

but much older and focused on a completely different area,

so not really like Young Farmers at all.

But we were talking about the Rural Business Network

and she was asking about how inclusive

or exclusive the RBN will be

because everyone

(not me)

is a little suspicious of consultants and accountants etc

being involved with the RBN.

I explained like above,

why do you go to your hairdresser?

Yes because they are good at doing hair

but more because you enjoy chatting to them

and if you didn't like them you wouldn't use their services.

Same for the rural service industry.

Rural Business Network

Oh my gosh!

Last night we held the pilot meeting for

the Rural Business Network

for the Manawatu/Rangitiki area.

Holee!

I had 29 confirmed and 60 turned up.

I only catered for 40!

But there seemed to be plenty of food

so I guess my menu choices may not have been popular.

My focus was finger food you pop in your mouth in one go.

We had Greig Shearer from C-Dax speak

and he is amazing.

Really interesting opinions on

information on farms, who should or could control that

and the impact of letting your information wander off

to be controlled by someone else

like google or a supermarket chain.

"Greig joins C-DAX with 30 years experience in the agricultural sector, primarily within the dairy industry on both sides of the Tasman, most recently leading the development and sale of Kapiti Fine Foods to Fonterra. Prior to joining Kapiti Fine Foods, Greig worked for Bonlac Foods and Bonland Dairies in Melbourne leading the international division prior to his departure"

His greatest success?

To get Kapiti cheeses on Air France.

Selling kiwi Camembert to the French,

that's what we like.

Did I tell you 60 people came last night?

I can't decided if I'm thrilled or shocked.

They were 60 really engaged, hungry people.

I think the RBN will be like the rain on parched soil,

very much needed and absorbed into the fabric of farmer's lives rather rapidly.

Thrilled cause if this is how the RBN will continue then we are on to a winner.

Shocked because the need for farmer, agri-sector network

is so needed.

I hadn't realised how much it was.

Thanks to Gazza and William for being the connectors for this event.

Next meeting 31 Jan 2012.

Next event

My life is just a conveyer belt of events,

Next one is....

today in Palmerston North

we will have holding the pilot meeting for

the Rural Business Network

for the Manwatu/Rangitiki

and other assorted regions.

My! What is the Rural Business Network?

I hear you say.

Well gosh!

It's a business network for rural people.

Y'know like farmers and stuff.

We have farmers and fencers,

bankers and bull sellers,

sales reps and people who have jobs that start with S

coming along to Wharerata

(apparently a poshish venue at Massey Uni, we will see tonight,

ooo I'm kind of excited)

and we get to nibble on yummy little nibbles

(I chose them, made sure we had beef).

Greig Shearer from C-Dax will speak.

I so hope he is good cause that's what I've been told.

And I will speak,

I sure hope I'm good, cause I'll be told if I'm not.

There's lots of help for this one.

William, Gazza, Mel - I think you've met Gaz before.

We have Elaine who I thought was called Eileen all day yesterday.

She'll take our focus group.

Hmmm focus groups....

so fun.

I'll try to remember to take photos

but it is in Palmerston North

dubbed suicide capital of New Zealand

by John Cleese.

It's not really... I think.

I'm planning on getting my nails done.

Such a treat being in a big town

with shops and stuff.