Casual sightings of political figures

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Some years ago my IT firm sold a product to the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). I was down there in Wellington at a meeting of the customer project steering committee. Which was about 5 folks from MFAT and a couple from my outfit. Some of the 5 were IT and others were line of business folks. There were also a couple of interested hangers-on in the back of the room observing the process.

After the first group working session the first day we were having a coffee & snack break and doing the get-acquainted thing. I was casually chatting with one of those back row hangers-on when one of the other Kiwis said “Yes, Minister” to them. I damn near dropped my cup & snack plate. Yup, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Not some generic middle manager as I’d assumed. I quickly replayed my mental tape of the earlier session to see if I’d created an international incident and was relieved to think I probably hadn’t.

There’s a lot to be said for the small scale of NZ. Keeps even the bigwigs human.

42

What, you think I should have pee’d in her closet?

43

I was within teen feet of Pres George W Bush. My wife was working an outdoor campaign event, and I told her I’d pick her up at a back gate. To avoid protestors, W’s motorcade sneaked out the back, within a few feet of me, standing alone at the curb.

44

Yeah, I’ve flown her between Wellington and Auckland a few times but that’s been a more formal affair with a car with dark windows pulling up directly to the plane (invariably late), guys with suits and sunnies, that sort of thing.