Odd Spots...........

Unfortunately our Pollock Cup Team was not successful on finals day, the Sunday before last, losing the semi in a close match. The Team rallied in the afternoon to finish joint third after a tied match with Waimari Beach.

Saturday saw me, David Page and Struan welcome the CEO of Canterbury Golf Doug McSweeney as a new member to the Club. In a close match Doug and I lost to Struan and David 2/1 after David made 4 on 17 with a shot to close us out. Doug shot 39 on the back nine but that was only good enough for a half as he lacked any sort of a helpful playing partner! I trust Doug enjoyed his afternoon and his introduction to the club. Luckily for him the financial loss was only $6.00 - the way I played it could have been much worse!

Quite often I am asked when do I & how long does it take to publish the Blog. The easy answer is "Ask no questions tell no lies!!" What I can say is the times recorded underneath each posting relate to some form of International Time (probably the country of origin for the host blogspot) and not to New Zealand standard time. On this subject no more will be said.

One of the hallmarks of my role as a Mediator is that I am not often called on to make a decision but instead try to empower the parties to resolve the matter in a way satisfactory to themselves. Quite often I simply say at mediation "The Government doesn't pay me enough to make decisions such as this" and after pointing out litigation risk I provide a 'gut feeling' view of what may happen should the matter go further always prefaced by "I could be wrong and you can't sue me if I am!!".

My decision making process can therefore appear (and probably is) very convoluted as I will continually attempt to address the needs and interest of all and get there by some form of consensus. The downside is that once the conclusion is reached or I make a decision I am loath to resile from it having previously considered all options and possibilities (notwithstanding I will be wracked with internal contradictions & turmoil). So be careful what you ask for because you may not like the answer when it comes back and then it won't be that easy to change.