It's a while since my last blog post, but that's because of a crowded schedule. Among other things in this holiday season, I'm working on two journal articles with colleagues in, of all places, Romania. I was one of people in my city, Armidale, renominating it for the intelligent community of the year award. Last November we discovered that our first round nomination had been successful and we were invited to prepare a more detailed submission in January to make the finals. So, having made the cut of the Smart21 from c. 450 entries, we now hope to reach the Intelligent and get a trip to the US. Mind you we'll get stiff competition from the likes of Montreal, San Diego and so on. Then, I'm helping to organise a conference in Vladivostok ... but in a minor way. More challenging is the task of organising a session on venture capital for Armidale's TechFest in mid-March, which involves organising people in the industry from far and wide. Finally, I finished off my chapter in a book being published by Taylor and Francis in the UK.
In a way, all this stuff is fun and comes with a lot of international collaboration. But January also came with social action. We hosted Max for two weeks in the school holidays which was great entertainment. And then came a night at the opera! Yes, Armidale ... a small community (25,000 residents) a long way from a major city (c. 500 kn) ... is home to an opera company - Opera New England. And so it came to pass that, last Thursday, I found myself in the gallery of the local Hoskins Creative Arts Centre, listening to a performance of Verdi's La Traviata. The director was a local theatrical impresario, the conductor was one of my doctors, the orchestra was local, but the singers were mostly young up-and-coming performers from the capital cities. And the price was of a ticket was an affordable 16 GBP.
It was a grand occasion and highly enjoyable. Fortunately, I was allowed in wearing national dress: sandals, shorts and a fancy t-shirt! Why not dress comfortably like this? Only desperately inadequate and insecure people would dress up in monkey-suits. Alas, I don't have any pictures, which were banned, but the sets and lighting were excellent. Congratulations to all involved.
AS
In a way, all this stuff is fun and comes with a lot of international collaboration. But January also came with social action. We hosted Max for two weeks in the school holidays which was great entertainment. And then came a night at the opera! Yes, Armidale ... a small community (25,000 residents) a long way from a major city (c. 500 kn) ... is home to an opera company - Opera New England. And so it came to pass that, last Thursday, I found myself in the gallery of the local Hoskins Creative Arts Centre, listening to a performance of Verdi's La Traviata. The director was a local theatrical impresario, the conductor was one of my doctors, the orchestra was local, but the singers were mostly young up-and-coming performers from the capital cities. And the price was of a ticket was an affordable 16 GBP.
It was a grand occasion and highly enjoyable. Fortunately, I was allowed in wearing national dress: sandals, shorts and a fancy t-shirt! Why not dress comfortably like this? Only desperately inadequate and insecure people would dress up in monkey-suits. Alas, I don't have any pictures, which were banned, but the sets and lighting were excellent. Congratulations to all involved.
AS
