Hello-hello,
During my time in Melbourne I am part of the Department of Business and Innovation at the Victorian State Government, and this allows me to attend a lot of government meetings. Last week kicked off with a ministerial briefing by the Ministers for Technology and Innovation in the Corporate Suite at the infamous Melbourne Cricket Ground – or the ‘G’ if you’re a local. I’ll spare you the nitty gritty politics and policy spiel, but the briefing was held in the ground where the Ashes cricket tournament was decided last year, and where where 100,018 fans gather at the weekend to watch Aussie Rules.
Government is a big machine that has many different functions, I am based in the DBI working specifically with the International Investment Team, last Wednesday we took a Department of Treasury car to have a tour of a few projects the Investment Team have funded. We toured a state of the art 3D motion capture facility and witnessed a demonstration of this amazing piece of technology. This facility secured government funding and is attached to Deakin University – anyway as part of the tour Deakin University dancers showed off the full potential of the 3D motion capture technology and it was very cool. Another highlight of the day was being driven around in a government car, after all how many students get chauffeured around in a government car?
Luckily it’s not all hard work and no play in Melbourne as last Thursday night we ventured up to a roof bar that showed the whole city lit up at night.
At the weekend there was a big Aussie Rules game, which is basically a cross between rugby and football - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football, happening at the ‘g’ that sold out weeks ago as it was two local teams that were playing each other. We tried to get tickets to the game through the website but unfortunately the tickets were sold out so it was looking like we wouldn’t be able to go. Fortunately for us we were able to use our government connections to get us a couple of prime seats for the game. This episode highlights the importance of having the right connections, and especially how important contacts are especially if you mention that you work for the government!
Lastly, the big news in Australia the past week has not been the phone hacking scandal or Barcelona’s assertion that they will fight for Fabregas, but instead the release of Harry Potter. I am a self proclaimed Harry Potter nerd, and with this being the case on Saturday night I went and saw the new Harry Potter movie – in a casino. The closest movie theatre to us in Melbourne is located in the Crown Casino so this was a bit of a detour from business as usual as I'm used to watching new releases at Cineworld on Renfrew Street. The atmosphere was very good, however it was a shame that the movie really wasn’t.
Anyway I’m signing off now before I lose your interest, see you soon...