It's Saturday night - which means that APEC is just about over. Several million people are heaving a collective sigh of relief.
Not that APEC has gone badly - quite the opposite, so far as I can tell. Many people here were worried about road closures, traffic chaos, and business being disrupted... Not so. In fact, apart from the millions of APEC flags and a few fortresses-on-wheels with police convoys, it would be possible to not notice that some huge international event is taking place. Very smooth.
The only big visit to Blue Dragon as part of APEC was a media crew from Australia. We finally made our television debut! I've been receiving lots of encouraging emails since the segments went to air on each of the five major channels... Which reminds me, I should be answering some of those messages rather than writing this blog...
Anyway, the journos were looking for a story on "the little people" as opposed to the heads of state who normally receive all the attention. Very tastefully handled, I thought. And our kids LOVED playing up for the cameras.
This morning I went to the airport to see off Doug Everett, who has been working in our finance department (which only has one staff member, mind you - but it's still a department) on improving our accounting systems. Doug's been with us through Australian Business Volunteers, and has just been brilliant. Anyway, we were both worried that the trip to the airport might not be so simple - but again, not a problem at all.
Still, though, people will be glad it's all over. For the last two months, every discussion and plan has involve the phrase, "...after APEC." I've been trying to meet up with some friends from other charities for months, but every time we try to set a date all we can conclude is "after APEC."
So now it's "after APEC." I expect to see a rainbow shining through my window.
