If one more person asks me how retirement is going….

I haven’t retired. I don’t want to retire. I can’t afford to retire. All I did was leave MTC. Perhaps its the grey hair. Perhaps it’s the fact that people offer me a seat on the tram. But the truth is that I’m trying to have some of the holidays that I didn’t have for all those years at MTC before I look for the next job. And as my holiday plan was Europe, I wanted to wait until the summer was over but before the snow set in. I leave on 28 August 2013 and will be back sometime before the end of the year.

In the meantime, I have been busy. Honest. The University of Melbourne has very generously offered me a part time Research Fellow position which is giving me the chance to see if I have a book on arts management in me. I taught an Advanced Arts Management course in tthe University’s school of Culture and Communication in first semester. The RE Ross Trust, a generous Melbourne-based philanthropic trust, asked me to review their Scriptwriting Awad. I’ve been on three Helpmann Award committees as well as an advisory panel for Arts Victoria. I have lots of informally mentoring conversations with people about arts management. And as you know from other posts, I have taught in Vietnam and presented in Colombia.

There isn’t nearly enough time to relax, read a book, get fit, go to the movies, catch up with friends. But I’m doing my best to squeeze some of those activities in as well.