I suppose, as Honorary Secretary of a small Italian group, I probably count as an Italian community leader.
Yeah maybe. Sort of.
Last year that community involvement bore some fruits. I got an invite to a gala dinner organised by the Italian Embassy. I also had a pass to the VIP section of the Italian Festa. So some fun events there.
This year, it does not appear that the Italian government is having a gala dinner of any sort in Melbourne, and nor was there a VIP section in the Italian Festa (over the past weekend). I suppose that this was due to reduced funding from the Italian government for such activities.
Similarly, as I have written in this blog recently, the catering at the Treasury Wine Estate AGM last week was rather underwhelming compared to last week. There were hardly any canapés, and only a few trays of lamingtons as dessert.
Nor did the wine last to 1pm like last year. The fun ended at 12.30pm.
One of the more sour shareholders at that AGM did also raise a question about the number of staff parties which Treasury employees seem to hold.
Looking at these incidents all coming together at the same time, I get the feeling that probably, this year, there is less money flying about to pay for hospitality. That in itself is probably an economic indicator.
Lost For Words! 