Day 9: Putting out feelers

Some useful contacts made today.

At the concert on Thursday we met a couple who live in our road and who invited us to a party tonight.   This morning we went to buy wine at a vast wine supermarket.  So much choice it was difficult to decide but we cruised the aisles for about an hour and finally bought some beer and some wine to keep and a bottle to take to the party.  We also bought a cooler (a polystyrene box) to keep groceries cool in the back of the car when it gets hotter.  

We called into the book shop to buy maps of Austin and Houston in preparation for visits there and I asked the man at the enquiry desk about book groups.  Apparently there's a university women's book group that meets once a month.  He thought they spent more time chatting than talking about books...but he said it politely.   He suggested that I start my own book club!  

In the afternoon we went to the campus to take a coffee maker to Peter's office.  His building was put up in the 70s and the office decor hasn't been changed since!  It's a large room with windows on two sides, dark wood bookshelves and red formica.  We had a walk round the campus which is vast  with imposing buildings of all ages linked by tree lined paths.

Texas A&M Campus

We spent a short while in the art gallery which has some interesting work, including several paintings by a naive artist H.O. 'Cowboy' Kelly - a great name! 

So off up the road to the party where we met some very interesting people.  I had a long conversation with a woman who founded an organisation that supports people who have been abused by their psychotherapists and we compared notes about working with volunteers, in my case volunteers for the Samaritans.   She was formerly a lecturer in organisational management and we talked about professional development in education in the UK.   Then I met a woman originally from York who has spent her life in social work.  She commented on the deplorable levels of social care in Texas and the dependency on voluntary organisations.  We swapped names and contact details and plan to go walking together.  She is also going to try and get me into the university women's book group (yes, the one that just chats!).  She was a bit taken aback when I told her what the man in the book shop had said, but when she explained how the book group works I realised that it might be easy to make assumptions!  Apparently they take along a book they have read, talk about it and pass it on to someone.   So they haven't all read the same book and you may also get passed something you wouldn't want to read in a month of sundays!   It doesn't sound quite what I'm looking for, but it might be fun!  I swapped details with a third woman (the hostess of the party) who is also keen on walking.  

Soon I may be too busy! 

Thunder, lightening and torrential rain during the night...