Yesterday during the plenary session, I sat next to a man named George who works in the IT industry in a family business. However, his background is in arts and he majored in drama. He told me of his love of classical music and he plays the paino at a high level. He said that he would love to put out a CD of his music as he composes too. He had a gadget that I see most people using - an iPhone. It's fantastic. A sleek telephone,camera, MP3 player and scheduler that puts my Blackberry to shame.
He showed me his house in Seattle by the lake using wifi technology, from his seat, he google mapped earth and from above, drilled down to show me his house opposite a lake. Then I had to do the same for mine. Unfortunately, Bentleigh was much dense than the area he lived in but I found the house and pointed it out. As it was real time, it fascinated me to think that from a satellite camera, I was looking down at my house where Andrew, at the time was sleeping! You wanted to tap the screen and say, 'hey, wake up! I'm here, up here...I can see you!"
Then I had the serious misfortune to sit down near this very loud woman with a thick accent. She made everyone on the table move places to accomodate her friends who never showed up. One of the older Texan women asked her, "where yer from dear?", the lady replied, "from here, LA."
"Yeah but where yer from originally?"
"Iran."
You could hear a pin drop. The Texans went back to their food while I broke the ice and asked if she came out here to escape the regime there. I also told her that i've met many educated Iranians in Australia. Regardless she didn't want to talk about that but flipped when she heard the Australian accent.
She asked me so many rapid fire questions but I don't think she was listening. She's the type who was an extrovert, her attention easily diverted but easly excited. She asked if 3 days in Sydney and 1 day in Melbourne is good for a trip to Australia..."you won't be seeing much" I said to her.
Then she saw the banners in my bag and excitedly asked for one. I took one out of my bag and she then started WRITING on it. I couldn't believe it.
"They are meant to be exchanged and displayed at your club!" I said.
"No no, you tell me where the cities are and how long they take to travel."
She then wrote out all the cities and with arrows between them wrote flight durations. She insisted on exchanging business cards and asked me if I knew anyone n Sydney who was willing to show her around. She was quite pushy but I think it was all innocent on her part. I thought about the same Russian lady who gripped my arm and momentarily thought that these two women should NOT meet or else Australians will be chased throughout the convention.
I made some excuse and left the table so the Texans would have to make conversation. Before I left though she managed to spill the oily juices of her lunch on our banner destroying it in the process. Alas.
I have been exchaning banners from some interesting clubs and have a small collection of ones from Califorinia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Japan.
I've had my photos taken with many people from different countries and even given a tee-shirt by one of them. Meanwhile I've been leaving little kangaroo pins and koala key rings about the convention and people are finding them unexpectantly and are surprised and stick them on with their other pins. Australians here by stealth....
Today is another full day of plenary sessions and breakouts with a finale concert with Burt Bacaharach at the Hollywood Bowl. More about that later...
You can find specific information about the sessions at the Rotary Club blog site:
http://moorleighmoorabbin@blogspot.com
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