Family-Work Juggling in Brisbane

 12 Viewway, Nedlands, WA 6009

Back home now, phew. The past week in Brisbane was pretty hectic. 

Family-wise, Emily (Mark's daughter) was visiting from Germany. She stayed with us in a 2 bedroom apartment during our week. Talia also joined for a few days so she could meet Lydia (Alex and Lyneta's baby), who I also met for the first time. 

All of us had a catch up at Alex's house, with an outside play for Lydia followed by pizza's for dinner. Talia really bonded with Lydia and Mark is just loving being Granddad. Since we last saw her, Emily has been diagnosed with and treated for ADHD, which she shared has changed her life, and indeed it seems to have done so. It was quite lovely to see.

Alex, Talia, and Lydia

Talia and Lydia

Alex and Emily

Lyneta with Lydia 

Glass bird I gave to Alex and Lyneta. Matches their door perfectly! It broke getting it there but I glued it up

Work-wise, everything went well also. We had a Women in Research event at the University of Queensland that I ran. I brought together 5 laureates and then we had over 200 women register to come. It was a whole morning of talks and panel discussions. We even had Talia agreed to volunteer to help out - something she can put on her cv. Having her there was pretty special as Melissa has often come to my work things but rarely Talia. It all went smoothly and every one seemed to get value from the event.

Talia checking the women researchers into the event

About 150 women and a few men attended

Me doing my thing

I then had a meeting with people at UQ as they are introducing SMART Work Design across the university.  

And then we had two days of SOBA  - which is the Society of Organisational Behavior in Australia - a group that Mark and I helped to found more than 25 years ago. Its a thriving group, and I am proud to have been one of the 'founding fathers' (really hate that expression!). I had a few Centre meetings in between. 

The Vice Chancellor of UQ (Debbie Terry) doing a welcome at the SOBA dinner

Sharon and the three Alex's at SOBA

Mark stayed an extra night to get one more visit to Lydia. I'm home, a bit exhausted but grateful we have the weekend to recover before a very huge work week next week.