This Week in Melbourne

Yesterday I tried to volunteer for the Victoria Bushfire Appeal manning the telephone lines to take donations, but they closed Saturday at midnight. That's good, because it means they probably have raised enough money by now. Australians have raised millions to help the victims and to re-build the damages, and the firefighters are projected to be able to fight more of the fires down this week, due to better weather (which I think means less hot and less wind). Although, we do have a smoke prediction forecast for Melbourne today, which if it's anything like Saturday means the city will be choked with smoke. Hopefully this passes soon.

This weekend we flew up to Canberra to entertain some government clients of Shell's at the symphony. It was a really beautiful concert, and the conductor was hilarious, which made the music very accessible for everyone. He really explained each peice before he played it, which was so cool. For instance, in one he said "this peice starts out at the river, you'll be able to hear the water. Then it takes you to a wedding, and you can hear the celebration. Then it continues down the river, and finds some animals. Then it travels down the river again, and night falls. Then we will take you back to morning, and end along the river." Isn't that beautiful? And you really could hear it in the music.

Today I'm doing some mock interviews for Accenture, which is training for their managers, but they are paying me to do so, so that's good.

I'm covering L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Week next month for Global Woman, and hopefully a few other outlets. I have press passes, and am doing pre-interviews with some of the leading women in each field globally. CEOs of H &M, L'Oreal, Saatchi & Saatchi, it should be great. I seem to have gotten myself into something big, so hopefully I can do something big with it. I'm also bringing along a friend to act as my photographer, so that will make it a lot of fun. I can't wait, it's Australia Fashion week essentially, so we get to go to the runway shows and all sorts of really cool events. The coolest are actually the business ones with interesting talks from these global CEOs about how we can still be effective in our fields in this financial crisis.

xx Sandra