Donation by Officeworks Coffs Harbour

When I was told about the Livescribe Smart Pen at the Churchill Fellowship information seminar it was an obvious "must buy" item to help with recording the information I gather on my study tour. So I went to Officeworks Coffs Harbour and selected the smartpen I wanted and approached the Technology Coordinator Matt Rees to see if Officeworks would be prepared to offer a Nation-wide discount to the 2011 Churchill Fellows. To my great surprise when I went to pay for my Livescribe Pen and hard cover diaries, Matt said that Officeworks Coffs Harbour had decided to donate them to me. Thank you to Matt and his team at Coffs, this donation will be invaluable on my Fellowship journey.

NSW Churchill Fellowship Awards 2011

Elizabeth presenting me with my Award

Kersten and me at Government House

Kersten, Sister Brenda and me

Post ceremony drinks

The beautiful ceremony room

On Friday 5^th August 2011 the NSW Winston Churchill Trust Fellowship Awards were hosted at Government House followed by dinner at Parliament House. The Fellows were awarded in this magnificent historic building by her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, Governor of NSW. I was particularly impressed to hear her Excellency start her presentation by stating how important protection of our environment and wildlife was, and the three “wildlife type projects”  got first recognition from her, which made a great impact on me. Family and friends were invited to attend the very official ceremony followed by “canapés on the Terrace” in the beautiful gardens overlooking Sydney Harbour. It was a magnificent spring evening and we met some very interesting people, many of whom will be sharing my Fellowship experiences this year.

Following the awards ceremony we went to Parliament House for an evening of Champaign, wine, dining and presentations. The dinner was at capacity and each Fellow gave a short presentation on their fellowship. We certainly have an eclectic mix of Fellows this year but I was amased at how many are travelling to similar countries.

On Saturday, at the Sydney Fire Station, past Fellows gave the newbie’s a series of presentations on various aspects of what it means to be a Fellow and how to undertake a fellowship– this proved absolutely invaluable and made me realise just what an amasing resource network the Churchill Fellowship provides. I thought I had done my fair share of travelling, and while I am always willing to learn new travel tricks, I gained some amasing new insights into travel and travel resources from the presentation. I would go so far as to say that if you didn't go, you have already started behind the black ball because the new tools I have acquired are not just going to my fellowship travel but will prove handy in my professional capacity.

“Let the official games commence !”

At this stage I fly to London to meet with scientists at the Royal Zoological Society in London Zoo at Regents Park. We have a two day workshop planned and I will be giving a presentation on our research.