I arrive at the appointed 4.15, five minutes early to be exact, and the charming assistant says she'll tell Ravi I'm here. All sounds good and I take my seat to look at the very active fish in the their prison, looking very hungry actually. I wonder who feeds them in this gilded palace? Ravi comes out and ushers in to his office the lady sitting next to me. It is just four fifteen and I wonder when I will be seen, five fifteen? After all, they're proudly operating seven days a week and twelve hours a day, at least. We'll see.
This morning already I have been to a World AIDS Conference prep talk given by two likely lasses from Mebourne flown in specially for the morning briefing. We are in the not very exciting atmosphere of St John's Hall and we number only seven people, plus the two principals. Tea is served, no rush, and indeed there is no rush as there is very little to be said. It is on all on their intenet site which we have looked at already. However this couple isn't silly, the one from Geneva, born in Montenegro, in cahoots wih her pal, Milanovic, obviously also a Croatian or Serb, know of New Zealand's delights and will soon, they later tell me, be in their rented car motoring down to the sights and wonder of the fabled Queenstown in the South Island. This AIDS band wagon is something else! Expecting fourteen thousand at the five day biennial world conference at the huge Melbourne conference centre on the banks of the Yarra, it will be the biggest Melbourne has ever hosted. And they will be laughing, Melbourne CBD I mean.
It is headed by two women, one Dr Barre-Sinoussi, who is the co-discoverer of the virus which causes AIDS, the other a leading scientist Dr Sharon Lewin, from Melbourne who is on the cutting edge of HIV research. The conference is entitled Setting the Pace, a rather droll title in my opinion. The two reps who came to Wellington were nearly superfluous, just giving out a few programs which were already on the net, and hoping that we all would register...$$$. The only way Lesley and I could afford to go is to act as volunteers, which I am sure will be more fun anyway.
I peruse the 'Commercial Invitation' booklet, of which they have many, and see the enormous costs involved, which means of course, there are enormous profits to be made. AIDS is, after all, one of the richest industries in the world after cancer and armaments. For example each media outlet is charged $20,000 US for the privilege of attending the conference, with computer hire generously thrown in. As they expect twelve hundred media reps, and the 'free' delegate bags cost a mere $65,000, go figure. But it will certainly be an interesting experience to mix with the world 'creme de la creme' of AIDS research, and their many hangers-on... I hope!
But back to the dental chair...
It is the next day and my mouth has recovered. It was as good a dental experience as I have had. Ravi was expert and not just that, he did not chat at all with his assistant, nor to me, during the whole procedure which lasted well over forty-five minutes. The overhead DVD however was not seen as there was no way I could appreciate a wealthy Kiwi's foray into huntin' and shootin’, and then cookin',
which was the subject of the movie. So although I emerged quite a bit poorer from the surgery I was happy with the result. It was another example of high cost but also high quality, something I never mind, above all in the mouth department, which in the past has proven to be quite a battle ground.
A nice post script. In the evening after the HU song in Kilbirnie I accepted a welcome invitation to stay for meal which was a beautiful smoked fish, but eaten only on one side of my mouth as the other side, full of novocaine or such, took quite a while to come back to normal. It was a good end to a very busy week.
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