Sunday, May 16, 2010

Dinner meeting 5/16/10

Last night several of us went to a dinner and talk sponsored by one of the groups here in Aramco. The usual networking and discussions before sitting down was good. Met several new people. The dinner table was good, as well. At the table was Nicole, Claudia, April, and two couples. Next to me was Vicky and her husband Scott, the other couple I did not get to talk with, unfortunately. Vicky is interested in art, so once she found out that I was also an artist she kept the conversation going until the speaker began. She was originally from Chile and moved to Columbia and later to the US. The conversationwas really pleasant, but I really wanted to talk to the others on the table, as well. Vicky expressed a desire to watch me work on my watercolors to learn and offered a space to work on order to observe. Made me realize that I need to put on some demonstrations/workshops on watercolor and illustration techniques. I'd like to do some nature journaling workshops/excursions here in the Middle East. Take a group to some place like Lebanon or the Red Sea to spend a few days observing and drawing/painting/photographing natural history (focusing on maybe birds or something) That could be fun. I'll have to get Nicole and Claudia interested and that is the only way it would happen. Cheers!

Back to the evening, the talk started out ok, but soon became painful. It was way too long. The speaker did not have any voice projection or enthusiasm. A number of people, including Claudia, left after an hour into the boring two hour travel log. Nicole and some others stayed to the bitter end, but we had to vent our displeasure at the cafe nearby and on the walk home. I am up for the July dinner meeting with a talk on the serpents of Arabia, and I am promising everyone that it will be short and sweet and engaging. Just wish I could find a few nice specimens to show the group.

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