Cool thing today

So, today is a very rainy day in Wellington. Little slivers of ice that are passing for rain are making walking around (which Karla and I do a lot of) very miserable.

Nevertheless, a neat thing happened today that I thought I'd share.

I went over to the Parliament buildings today for a meeting with some people to talk about the project I'm working on, which has to do with MPs making better use of technology. Heading up the elevator I had a brief chat with a woman who got on with me, apparently just finishing a visit with some school kids touring the building.

She made quite an impression--she was expensively dressed, had these neat designer glasses that seemed to incorporate the New Zealand fern, and just had a lot of 'presence'. I figured she was probably one of the MPs, maybe even a Minister. We chatted heading up the elevator about the kids she had just met, and how she enjoyed doing those sorts of things.

Anyway, I came out of the elvevator to meet my appointment, and the person I was meeting said: "Oh! Did you meet Jenny, David? Jenny Shipley, our former Prime Minister. She must be in the buildings today for some sort of event."

So how cool is that? I made chitchat with one of New Zealand's Prime Ministers without even knowing it!