Getting down in the Pond of Ziggy
or How I got up the courage to introduce myself to Ziggy

As some of you regular readers will be aware, Suzette and I were invited to enjoy the Melbourne Cup in the Telstra Bigpond marquee on Tuesday.

As you come to accept in Melbourne, the weather was a mess. Sunny and warm when we headed off and miserable and cold in the arvo BUT we didn't care because by the time the cup came around I'd drunk 6 daiquiris, 2 glasses of bubbly and 2 wines ;-) and because we were in the marquee with our own TAB person and huge BigPond umbrellas (more on this later)

Suzette look fantastic and had really enjoyed getting dressed up and shopping!! for the event.

We traveled by train in the morning along with plenty of others and made our way around to the Bird Cage which is where all the expensive corporate marquees were setup. Passing through about 3 levels of security checks we got to the marquee which was very tasteful. It was big and roomy with cushions around the walls and some bar stools and high tables in the center. The food and drinks were great and everyone looked very nice.

When we first arrived (around 11am) we were by far the youngest but as the day progressed more people our age arrived.

We wandered around the rest of the Bird Cage looking at other marquees and generally feeling very well to do...not unlike when I used to get invited to work balls at the old company.

What about the celebs you may ask...well we saw...Mark Latham about 3 times, John Andersen once, James Packer, a few news presenters, two Olympians and lots of execs and their wives.

Within the BigPond tent I was expecting to see a couple of people I knew but only one person, the head of BigPond, was there so it was to be a social exploration type of day. We met a lovely couple (Simon and Cherene) who happened to be big West Wing fans so we hit it off immediately and spent a bit of time with them.

In terms of Schmooozing....I did my bit and went and talked to the head of BigPond; I introduced myself to the MD of Ericsson Australia and most impressively went up and introduced myself to the big Z, Ziggy Switkowski, the head of Telstra. We had a good chat about BigPond Movies and about some of the work I'm doing in the mobile space.

yes...about the umbrellas....they had these huge golf umbrellas to use and we needed one to get to the train back home, so we now have a huge golf umbrella.

And I managed to pick the quinella on the cup so we walked away with much more money than we had spent!!

All in all a very fun and enjoyable day!!!