Business Meet-up with our new Mayor - Sam Coupland

I attended an interesting meeting yesterday. I'm a member of the New England Buinsess Chamber and we gathered yesterday evening to meet, talk to, and hear an address from our new mayor for the Armidale Regional Council, Sam Coupland. 

It was held, of all place, in a brewery. The Geat Hops Brewery lies in a field on the edge of town. This might seem an unlikely place for such an event, but in practice it was perfect. Apart from the brewing gear, the huge shed had many tables where guests could sit, sip their drinks, and consume various nibbles. Alternatively, there was a lot of space to walk around and talk to not just the mayor and his deputy but also many friends. There was also a great choice of beers, wines and other drinks.

I had good discussions with Sam and his deputy, Todd Redwood. And, more importantly, our discussions gave me great hops that Armidale's council would offer great leadership in developing our town and region - something rather missing in recent years.

And here's some pictures of what I saw. The first one shows the large bar that served us drinks

This picture shows the shed's beer making equipment

Here's a long-term colleague whom I play against at the Armidale Bridge Club, Robyn Coupland,. But you can also some of the tables that are scattered around the facility.

And, finally, here's Sam giving his presentation. He spoke eloquently about Council's problems and prospects and aims for the future ... issues and ideas that received great applause. Note also the keyboard alongside, which was used to warm the shed's atmosphere and enthuse the crowd of business-people.

Altogether, it was nice night out and it countered an otherwise dismal day climaitically - one where the sun went missing and grey skies dumped one shower after another all through the day. Fortunately, the shed we were in didn't leak!

AS

Interesting Week

Fortunately, despite my age, I still have interesting weeks. So let me lead you through some of the things I did in roughly date order. On Monday, Dot alerted me to a glorious sun-set at about 8 pm. I went out of our front door and took the picture below. I have recently read that such a red sunset was caused by atmospheric pollution caused by the recent volcanic eruption among the Pacific islands of Tonga, which tossed a heap of debris into the southern hemisphere skies.

On Wednesday, 16 February, I and two colleagues from our New England Visions 2030 team went out to the airport business park where the Armidale Regional Council had granted our local historic car enthusiasts a site to construct a very large museum to house both their great portfolio of great cars and early planes that served our town. I'm on the right and my colleagues John Atchison OAM (Order of Australia) is centre and Alun Davies is on the left. Behind us is the site in question. I gather that the motor enthusiasts will have to find about $5 million to construct the premises, but perhaps our NEV 2030 development team can help with raising that sum.

                                 

The Armidale airport region is environmentally attractive and this pircture looks northwest towards the Guyra plateau whose altitude is c. 1300 m. I liked the cloud pattern on that day.

That same day, our NEV 2030 group held a Question and Answer (Q & A) event at Armidale Bowling Club. Over 50 people - many of them community leaders - from around town attended to discuss the poblem of homelessness we have in town and how best to manage it. Here's our leader, Maria Hitchcock OAM, addressing the audience about the session would be handled.

Prior to that, she was introduced by my friend Alun, shown here again!

The three experts on homelessness who would receive and answer questions about the subject are shown here at their table. Each deals with the issue of helping homeless people on a regular basis, though the issue has many different and complex dimensions.

And here's the audience awaiting the start of the meeting, with Dot in the centre just in fron the blike standing. 

Let me say that the gathering was a great success. The highly knowledgeable team at the table responded to some 11 question prepared in advance by both our NEV 2030 team and several in the audience. My question, for example, focused on the potential impact on homelessness of a rapid rise in weekly rental dues because of rising property prices. And I received some very informed responses. Both my friends Alun and John also rai.sed their issues. At the end of the Q & A session it was my role to congratulate everyone in the room and hand each of the 3 speakers a nice bottle of wine.

Each Saturday morning - weather permitting - Alun and I go for a rural walk lasting about 1 hour. Today we had a lovely walk and en route passed some interesting buldings. I photographed this wreck of place because Alun noted that when he and his wife Helena came to lunch with us mid-week Dot mused about buying an old historic place and doing it up. He suggested that this might be an option. Would you restore it?

Nearby he pointed out this lovely historical homestead on what we call a rural residential site. This is not a farm, but just a nice rural home, heaps of which encircle Armidale. On our walk we saw quite a lot of kangaroos, occasional sheep or horses, and nice little birds. However, we saw no other people! Can my readers walk for an hour and see no-one else?

Finally, I'll ask my UK readers if they ever buy these products in their supermarkets. Coming first is a package of 6 McVitie's "Penguins" made at Stockport.

Then there is a package of 8 Caramel Wafer Biscuits made by Tunnock's at 34 Old Mill Road at Uddingston in Glasgow!

 

Finally, here's some Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chococlate apparently made in 1960 - just joking!

I bought all these items on the same day this week at Woolworth's supermarket here in Armidale. I'm interested in hearing if any of my UK readers also might purchase these items and what they think of them.

I think it's time for another short walk given that we've lovely weather today - c. 24 C and rather sunny. My fitbit tells me how many steps I have taken each day ... and the total for the week. My target is 10,000 steps a day (70,000 per week) - apparently reached by many Mediterranean farmers! Right now, I've recorded 118,006!!!!!! If I go for another walk now, I should reach 120,000. This level of exercise has eaned me a special badge from fitbit - the Nile Badge. Believe it or not, I have walked the same distance as from the headwaters of the River Nile to its discharge into the Mediterranean. I wonder how long it will be before I circumnavigate this planet.

Have a nice day.

AS