Heard Bill Clinton
Hi Everyone, (I'll get on to President Clinton in a moment...)
Fi and I had a really cool weekend. We did our usual start to the weekend, going to Borough market on Saturday morning for fruit, veges and bit of breakkie, and then did a tour of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster Palace on Saturday afternoon. Its hard to fathom just how small the House of Commons is until you see it. Its exactly the same dimensions as the NZ chamber, only we have 120 MPs and the Brits have well over 600! Very cool to walk around and in amongst where it all happens, but I still can't believe we had to pay £12 for a tour!
The rest of the Palace is very impressive, with some great statues, stunning decor, a very impressive looking House of Lords and years worth of history. As an interesting aside, the dispatch boxes that the PM, Leader of the Opposition and others speak from were a gift from NZ after the War. So every time they lay into each other, a little piece of NZ is helping hold them up. We then went to Leicester square for dinner afterwards. We hadn't been out to a restaurant just by ourselves for a little while, and it was great: battered king prawns, Salmon, lamb and cheesecake for dessert. It was a really nice weekend.
Then, today at work, out of nowhere my boss told me that there were tickets available to hear Bill Clinton speak at the 02 arena, (formerly the millennium dome). It was only an hour or two before the talk, and I had to take a very long lunch to get there; but it was amazing.
He gave a speech of about 30-35 minutes about the world, its many problems, some of the big issues in world politics today and what he thinks needed to be done. He then did about 40 minutes of Q&A. Simply, he is the most amazing speaker I have heard. His knowledge and intelligence is very impressive; but pales in comparison to the work he is doing, raising millions of dollars for charities and causes all over the world. For all his short comings: here is a man who could spend his days raking in millions for himself just on the lecture circuit; and yet he devotes the majority of his time raising money for various charities and causes.
His oratory skills are phenomenal. When he wants to really make a point, with out seeing or hearing any change in the way he speaks, he can grab an audience in a split second and have every single person on the edge of their seat; dangling for whatever he is about to say next.
It was quite amazing to hear him talk about his great friend Nelson Mandela, how he has helped him over the years and how much he means to him. He talked very openly about the Northern Ireland conflict, climate change, Afghanistan, Iraq and the future of the world. And it all ended, much to his surprise, with a local playing "Happy Birthday Mr President" (his birthday is this month) on a saxophone. This musician was excellent and President Clinton was clearly very impressed and gave the man a huge hug afterwards.
If you want to know any more, I'm happy to tell you more about it via email.
All in all, a superb day. One of those that will only ever happen once.
Fi and I had a really cool weekend. We did our usual start to the weekend, going to Borough market on Saturday morning for fruit, veges and bit of breakkie, and then did a tour of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster Palace on Saturday afternoon. Its hard to fathom just how small the House of Commons is until you see it. Its exactly the same dimensions as the NZ chamber, only we have 120 MPs and the Brits have well over 600! Very cool to walk around and in amongst where it all happens, but I still can't believe we had to pay £12 for a tour!
The rest of the Palace is very impressive, with some great statues, stunning decor, a very impressive looking House of Lords and years worth of history. As an interesting aside, the dispatch boxes that the PM, Leader of the Opposition and others speak from were a gift from NZ after the War. So every time they lay into each other, a little piece of NZ is helping hold them up. We then went to Leicester square for dinner afterwards. We hadn't been out to a restaurant just by ourselves for a little while, and it was great: battered king prawns, Salmon, lamb and cheesecake for dessert. It was a really nice weekend.
Then, today at work, out of nowhere my boss told me that there were tickets available to hear Bill Clinton speak at the 02 arena, (formerly the millennium dome). It was only an hour or two before the talk, and I had to take a very long lunch to get there; but it was amazing.
He gave a speech of about 30-35 minutes about the world, its many problems, some of the big issues in world politics today and what he thinks needed to be done. He then did about 40 minutes of Q&A. Simply, he is the most amazing speaker I have heard. His knowledge and intelligence is very impressive; but pales in comparison to the work he is doing, raising millions of dollars for charities and causes all over the world. For all his short comings: here is a man who could spend his days raking in millions for himself just on the lecture circuit; and yet he devotes the majority of his time raising money for various charities and causes.
His oratory skills are phenomenal. When he wants to really make a point, with out seeing or hearing any change in the way he speaks, he can grab an audience in a split second and have every single person on the edge of their seat; dangling for whatever he is about to say next.
It was quite amazing to hear him talk about his great friend Nelson Mandela, how he has helped him over the years and how much he means to him. He talked very openly about the Northern Ireland conflict, climate change, Afghanistan, Iraq and the future of the world. And it all ended, much to his surprise, with a local playing "Happy Birthday Mr President" (his birthday is this month) on a saxophone. This musician was excellent and President Clinton was clearly very impressed and gave the man a huge hug afterwards.
If you want to know any more, I'm happy to tell you more about it via email.
All in all, a superb day. One of those that will only ever happen once.
posted by Steve at 2:15 PM
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