Okay so... [an aside: this is how our professor, Jim Phills, starts all his sessions or more accurately, "Okay so, so, so, so, so..." which I think is a reflex he's developed while waiting for students to settle down.]
Okay so... the party raged on 'til 3am and I noticed a lot of sore heads and bleary eyes at breakfast. I confess, I didn't last that long, needless to say I had a great time. LOL. The evening started with a game provided by Simon - an Aussie and CEO of Camp Quality - an organisation committed to providing quality lives to children suffering from cancer and their families living in Australia. He challenged us to a reveal two lies and one truth about ourselves. You know the sort of thing: I have three testicles, have been married three times, and have been baptised three times; I have a tattoo on my body, I once had an ear-piercing and I have visited a brothel in Amsterdam; I have tattoo on my bum (another Aussie), I was Kate Moss' PA for three months, I was born in England; I grew up in a refugee camp, I once worked in a brothel as a social scientist and... you get the picture. (The sources of these lies and truths will remain private so as not to damage the character of any future executive leader).
My three? Okay so... I have sheared a sheep, I once got into a taxi with Sigourney Weaver although I didn't know who she was, I am a part owner in a cattle farm in Western Queensland. Pretty straight forward, I would have thought. But of course, this is an international course and things got lost in translation. So, with my accent, most people heard "I have shared a sheep." I said something like "Sig - nor - gay" (I have never been able to pronounce Sigourney) and of course, this led to a great deal of speculation as to my credibility. Luckily, there was no quibble with the third option. Although, I purposely said cattle "farm" not cattle station, which might have given rise to a question around why cattle travel on separate trains. Anyway, I'll let you guess which one is the truth - not many got it, I have to say. On a scale of one to ten this party rated a clear 150. It was a hoot of a night!
After breakfast I went for a long walk into Palo Alto via the very beautiful parkland that is part of the campus. The weather is pure spring - my favourite kind - sunny, crisp, clear, not a cloud in the blue, blue sky. I saw squirrels, blue jays and chipmunks, which points to the fact I'm on a different continent - was I ever in doubt? - and, of course, to look right when stepping off the footpath. (I've got that right? It's right. Right? Not left? Hmmm? No, it is left. Remember to look left.) But walking into town there are other things: the long queues to purchase i-pad 2, the winter hours of the shopping precinct (They don't open til 10am - this part of the country doesn't know what bad weather is! That reminds me daylight saving starts tonight and we skip ahead an hour.); the way shop windows are framed by the building and look smaller compared to our full glass shopfronts in NZ. And the names too. My favourite is "Lovin' Hut". Inside there is an honour board of elite vegetarians and vegans. They include Prince Charles, Richard Gere, Natalie Portman, Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther King's wife, Coretta etc. The sign reads: They are intelligent, brave, beautiful, athletic. You can be too. Eat healthily. or something to that effect. You get the jist. Still... I haven't found a good coffee. I'm not going to am I? I should give up now while I'm ahead!
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