last week

was a big one.

Four days away,

launches, seminars, meetings and too many flights

and not enough airpoints dollars.

The Southern Alps covered in winter snow

The last meeting I attended was

organised by Rural Women NZ.

Rural Women is an old school organisation that came from

the wives of Federated Farmer's members who were over

sitting around while the men did their talking about important things.

These wives cleaved off to organise themselves into a rather successful lobby group

focusing on rural issues that affect families, women and children.

Effectively the ones that Feds over look.

Rural Women have really made an impact on the

social landscape of rural communities in NZ

with a number of changes in legislation.

The meeting I invited myself to on behalf of Young Farmers

was about animal violence and domestic violence.

So with that in mind the

SPCA, Womens' Refuge, Vet Association and the Police

were also there.

The conversation was long and got side tracked

about SPCA getting a Memorandum of Understanding

with the Police that the Police should take advantage of the newish

animal abuse legislation when they can.

Of course the SPCA want to make the most of the changes

but for domestic violence it's an ideal opportunity

to get supporting evidence if not charges

to stop violence in a home.

The purpose of the meeting was for Rural Women et al

to try and figure out how to make it easier for

women* to leave violent or potentially violent

home environments.

Often the abuser use pets and stock as 'pawns' or 'hostages'

to keep women under their thumbs, afraid and stuck.

How can you leave your animals behind knowing

that they may bear the brunt of your abuser's anger.

Animals in the past have been killed in heinous ways

as a result of domestic violence escapes.

Another thing that came up was that the pattern bruising from a beating

on a corpse of a human and an animal are very similar.

Anyway it was an interesting conversation

that was very impassioned.

As per usual in discussions in the rural sector

there was little discussion about promotion and education.

I would imagine as an abused woman,

I would find it easier to talk about my dog being beaten

than me.

I not sure I would be able to admit I was being beaten.

If my neighbours understood that animal abuse and person abuse

go hand in hand,

then they can have an alarm to ask questions around

to make it easier for the abused to be helped.

After all if a person is willing to punch a cow in the shed

then they are fine with punching the cow in the kitchen.

(that little pearler didn't go over so well when I said it in the meeting).

Rural Women has started to form a plan

and will go back with a structured way of helping women.

Cause that's what they do.

And then I met Jolly Hockeysticks Jo for dinner

and flew home.

On my way home, the south Wairarapa coast

and a big scratch on the outside of the plane window *sigh*

* Obviously Rural Women focus on women but domestic violence has a million different faces and ways of expression.

PICA

Ok I know that PICA doesn't sound exciting but it is, really.

We, being me and the boss headed to Wellington

for the PICA launch we had organised

at the very nice and very helpful Wellington Club.

I think some people came just because the launch was held there.

Other exciting thing was Nessie came up from

Central Otago for the night to speak at the launch.

Nessie and I would have had a bit of a girls night after the launch

cause we were staying together at my favourite Wellington Hotel

the Quest Hunter Street but we needed to do other stuff.

By the by, the Quest has the best showers,
that are so forceful they cause a howling gale in the shower stall.

The view from the 8th floor of the Quest.

So back to PICA.

PICA is the Primary Industry Capability Alliance.

There's us, Young Farmers, Federated Farmers, AgITO,

Beef+LambNZ, DairyNZ, MAF which is now MPI

and the Centre for Excellence, Lincoln and Massey.

We all get around a table and have yarn about how to create

a strong, agreeable human capability strategy for the entire pastoral sector.

That's the cows, cattle and sheep part of the industry.

It's been tried before but we are determined

to cooperate and collaborate.

This what happens when you copy photos from the internet, fuzzy as bro.

Left is the boss, Richard Fitzgerald, MP Nathan Guy,

Minister for Primary Industries David Carter and

the MC, DairyNZ Board member and ex Young Farmers President Ben Allomes.

You can tell Ben is DairyNZ by his tie.

Remember that, it will hold you in good steed for the future.

The Minister opened the launch or launched the launch

and gave us a great, supportive speech.

Ben as MC was funny and smart.

Richard as Chair of PICA was enlightening.

We had the whose who of Wellington agricultural industry.

It was all on that night.

Nessie spoke brilliantly as someone who is following

the PICA ag based career pathway.

She compared it to wanting to be a professional rugby player.

You don't just rock up to All Black training in your 20s.

You spend all your schooling and training working towards

the goal of being an elite, well trained, competant player.

Same for the ag industry.

Farming is a serious business

and we need serious, smart people to grow our food.

It's kind of important.

Then when it was all over,

Nessie, Ben, Massicks, me and Rosie* met up

for pizza and a debrief.

Cause that's how we roll in NZYF.

Check, check.

*Rosie had been in the Hawkes Bay at Brownriggs organising the Get Ahead Careers Day - all about ag careers in NZ.

iPhone

I'm back from leave.

Back to the rural world.

Seriously how many people consider going to a suburb a good holiday?

Am I weird?

Do I deserve to suffer this angst?

Who would swap this sunny back yard for this?

I guess I would, because I have.

It pains me.

It's Wellington in case you didn't recognise it.

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!

It'd be Sunday morning

I'm sitting in an apartment in Wellington

on a rainy Sunday morning in Wellington

Did I say that already?

Oh well that would be because cities are boring, boring places.

And I think I might allergic to Wellington

and I mean that in all sincerity.

I woke up this morning with itchy skin and a headache.

Why am I here if I am allergic it this city?

Hmm well I came up,

up in the head north kind of sense,

for a bunch of reasons

and one was to hang out with pippagee.

pippagee and me went shopping

and she bought the most simply beautiful ring.

A gold eternity ring that is sweetly delicate.

and it sat so perfectly with pippagee's pearl heirloom ring.

pippagee and me talked up a storm

as a prelude to listening in the midst of a storm later on.

A good weekend on the whole

and I now know that soda water and blotting

is best used to get red wine out of hotel carpet,

possibly any carpet.

I had a long and really interesting discussion

with the carpet cleaner man

who kept me chuckling with his emergency carpet cleaning stories.

Let's say it isn't a boring job as one may suspect.

the super, fast weekend continues...

After sleeping on a surprisingly comfortable stretcher bed, it was time for Church.

Jolly Hockeysticks is in Wellington Ward which meets at the Chapel in Hataitai. We caught the bus - this was quite exciting cause there are no buses where I live. If you don't have a car or can't get a ride you are going nowhere.

The weather was starting to close in but the rain waited until 4pm to kick in but the wind, oh my gosh the wind! During Church if anyone had been watching me they would have instantly known I was not a local as I peered out the window when ever a huge gust hit the chapel.

Even though I looked up the street I totally did not see the tunnel. It was a little bit of a surprise to drive into the mountain - I'm such a yokel!

Buses have got quite flash since I last rode on one, or fell off one for that matter,

I didn't take photos at Church cause that always seems a bit off but I do have to say Wellington Ward is the best ward I've been to (and I have been to a few).

Things I enjoyed about Wellington Ward were;

• The Bishop was impressively engaged during the Sacrament programme. He sang his ever lovin' heart out.
• The singing in the ward was a huge improvement on the usual slack funeral dirge effort. They rocked it, as much as you can in a sober and conservative manner.
• The Relief Society Presidency fell over themselves to be welcoming.
• The YSA (not that I'm eligible for them) were lovely and helpful, and
• Aure was there! I haven't seen her for an age (hi Aure, good to see you, you make the cutest babies!) - it's funny how after living in the 'tron where ever you go there will be Mormon link back.

After we left church we packed up all my shopping and walked down to Te Papa - that's it with the greeny-blue tower thing (that's an architectural term)

to see the Pompeii Exhibit.

Where they had the body casts that I've seen for years and years as a student of classics and before that in this really cool comic book about the last day of Pompeii I had when I was about seven. Mags clearly never worried about child friendly warnings like they do at Te Papa.

As we came to the body casts there were warnings for Africa (that is a dumb saying don't you think?I blame Petra Baghurst for that one). I must say that the casts weren't disturbing other than to inspire a real appreciation of how about 2000 people died (most of the 12000 inhabitants left safely). Like this guy who pulled his cloak over his mouth as he crouched in a doorway and the ash piled up and over him... and that he is life size, since he was a real person... its more impressive face on...

and the giant squid.

It's really hard to take photos of the giant squid. The silly thing is lying down and not at all amenable to photo taking. It's gross.

I liked this little bit of kiwi detail at Te Papa - a prize for anyone who can tell where this is situated (not you though Jolly!)

Across from Te Papa is the Museum Hotel which has the best ever loos, so make a point of using them just for a luxurious experience - you should stay there too. I have and it was a perfect hotel experience and the owner is a very kind man who really helped me out once. And yes it did involve free accommodation but not for me.

Then it was time to leave and for my one of my favourite things and that is going to the airport and sniffing jet fuel! Yay jet fuel!

You gotta get your kicks from where you can when you're clean living.

The airbridge was not quite attached to the plane so intoxicating fumes were wafting up just for me, I'm sure. I think being a plane fueler maybe my dream job.

The flight was a little bit lumpy to quote the air steward, so no snacks for us but it's only 30 minutes and let's face since the flight was delayed by 25 minutes most of the passengers would gone and had nasty airport hot chips, or that might just have been me.

Bye Wellington! Thanks Jolly Hockeysticks for hanging out with me. I really enjoyed talking and talking with you. You are looking great and I can't wait to see you again!

super, fast weekend...

Due to a cancellation I took advantage of an air ticket that was looking for a home. Actually let me pause for a second here and say that since the invention of booking tickets on-line, I feel decidedly less committed to informing the airline if I'm not taking the flight - now before you call me a modern day Marie Antoinette, these are work tickets that plans have changed and the meeting is no longer needed but because you booked on-line, the ticket is unchangeable, non-refundable I feel no need to tell the airline I have a better offer. I wonder how that impacts things for them, not that I care since they got rid of snacks.

Anyhoo, the ticket was a one way to Wellington for Saturday morning so I grabbed me a cheap return ticket for Sunday night and off I went to visit and Jolly Hockeysticks and Gavy.

I don't know these people but that was the crappy plane we flew up on. Having said that I wouldn't have got a photo of the big plane I came back on cause you don't need to walk across the tarmac to get on and off that but also because the weather was so terrible on Sunday afternoon.

But I did fulfil one of my non-New Year's resolutions of talking to people on planes. I chatted to a girl who was on holiday from her OE and worked in advertising in London - I wonder why Kiwis on their OE seldom get out of London? She was saying that she had been there for four years and had yet to travel in Europe for a holiday - she did day trips to places like Russia for work. What is that about heaps of UK based OEers I know didn't do as much traveling as they hoped they would and I must admit on my own OE v2 I did plenty but there was so much more I could do. So a big tick on that resolution.

Jolly Hockeysticks met me, which was fab. I love being meet at the airport.

In a previous life I was one of those very efficient, executive types that passed through the airport directly to a waiting taxi like a heat seeking missile. After a while you miss the personal touch and excitement of being met.

We popped over to pick up Jolly's friends Tara and Elissa and then we went to the Hutt to shop - no photos as anyone who has been there will agree less is more for the Hutt but this is what the Wellington harbour looks like from the motorway when you leave the Hutt...
We shopped and shopped and I was glad when it was all over.

But wait! Then we stopped at Ezybuy in Thorndon - which I have to mention because I like this shiny photo I took from the car when I could no longer walk.

Actually let me explain why my shopping stamina is minimal. I live 40 minutes from any shoppy shops i.e. malls and streets of clothing shops, and let face it any other kind of shopping is just a 'have to shop' so doesn't count.

Now because I am 40 minutes away from town and I am a homebody, I go to town about once a month and mostly it is after hours so nothing is open so I don't shop. That combined with an aversion to taking my clothes on and off repeatedly makes me inclined to do a massive, get it done, shop til you drop kind of session. Which is what we did.

Damage was limited - I paid cash.

Back to Wellington..

I was going to post the non-dirty windscreen photo but politics is a dirty business and should be looked at through jaundiced eyes. This is the Beehive where the executive offices of our government have their offices. Interesting point that we seldom have photos of where our country's elected representatives actually debate legalisation instead we have photos of an iconic office building where the governing party has their offices. Way to go bureaucrats!

Jolly and I dropped the girls off and headed back to her place to basically look at our shopping and swallow our buyers remorse before jumping to a new top and going to meet Gavy for dinner.

I forgot how unforgiving the weather is in Wellington and also forgot to not take cues from Jolly because she is Coaster and so doesn't feel cold. Wearing a thin cotton top to dinner in Wellington was a freezing experience.

We got yummy pizza at One Red Dog for dinner from very under enthused waiting staff. Sorry we were interrupting your evening there folks.

Jolly Hockeysticks dove into a chocolate fondue. She had never had one which I find amazing as it was a standard default dessert in our house growing up.

Then we walked back along Courtney Place to Gavy's cozy, little but well appointed apartment where we ate homemade delicious chocy truffles. Gavy had got the recipe through the Pioneer Woman site as he is a cooking guru i.e. he actually reads recipes and then makes them as apposed to me who buys cook books, reads them and shelves them. We talked for awhile before leaving - good to catch up with you Gavy. Your travel plans etc sound such fun, remember to learn more acceptable German before you go!