BRISBANE AGAIN!

“Success: To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am in Brisbane for work, today and tomorrow and it is a gruelling schedule with much happening and not much respite. At the hotel room tonight I am feeling rather tired as it was a 3:30 am start this morning and a 6:00 am flight out of Melbourne, arriving in Brisbane two hours later at 7:00 am (Brisbane is one hour behind Melbourne as they don’t have daylight saving). Now it’s getting on past 9:30 pm (well, 8:30 pm) and I have been up and about and doing things for 18 hours or so…

Today was a very important day on campus as we had an accreditation panel come through and do an inspection of the campus and interviews of staff. This was a very rigorous and full schedule from about 11:00 am until 5:00 pm. There was a great deal of preparation for this visit, not the least of which was the documentation and then the various interviews, visits to the library, classrooms, laboratories, and interviews with staff, students and alumni, as well as the executive. The good news is that we all passed muster and our courses were reaccredited. The feeling at the campus at the end of the day was heady and buoyant, and I was pleased that my team’s efforts were acknowledged and lauded.

We celebrated by going out to dinner in an Italian restaurant called “Capri” here in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, in a precinct known as the Emporium. It is very cosmopolitan dining and entertainment precinct with a boutique hotel (“The Emporium”) on site also. We celebrated with champagne and a good Italian meal. There was much laughter and mirth and good humour and much of the tension of the last few months (while the submission was being prepared) was released.

Tomorrow I have an important meeting with one of the tertiary institutions here in Brisbane to broker an articulation agreement between our two Colleges. The preliminary discussion shave gone very well and I am confident of having another success tomorrow.

Now, I think it may be time for an early night. Getting up early tomorrow again!