Our dive club in Melksham, The Divezone, won a national award at a ceremony at the Dive Show in Birmingham a few weeks ago. This was the 2008 Coastal Challenge Award from the Marine Conservation Society for contributions to the ongoing cleanup of beaches, in this case particular work on Chesil Beach. This is also a bit special because it is the silver jubilee of the MCS this year.

Well done!

The Divezone November December 2008 newsletter is here.

The last few weeks things seem to have gone really smoothly with the business when I have focused on what I know needs to be done, rather than being anxious about where and when new jobs are coming together. Although I have had a lot to do, I believe that I have prioritised well and what I have set my mind to has gone well.

I have been encouraged and challenged by visits to Corsham School - a Visual Arts College renowned for its creativity, and to the black tie dinner final of the North Wiltshire New Business Competition. (I was not an entrant: I hadn't heard of it in time!) The guest speaker, Alex Tew, had failed to win in a previous year, but had famously made $1million by selling 1 million pixels on a web page to help fund his business studies degree. He was so successful that he had to postpone his course!

I find myself being impressed by those who are in touch with what they do well, and having gained an appropriate grounding in their discipline are willing to break the conventional boundaries to "go beyond" and demonstrate excellence in a unique and groundbreaking way. This surpasses those who seek to achieve not so much by unique talent but by careful methodologies (wise and helpful as those are). I also find myself admiring those who, perhaps working quietly behind the scenes as local councillors, are able to help reconcile people who by helping them to see their different perspectives and so build community.

Maybe these are pointers to where my own life is heading.

I've been missing my singing!

I have rejoined local community choir Singing in the Round, and survived an attempt by a local choir in Chippenham to poach me when I accidentally attended a singing workshop at the Wiltshire Music Centre by Northern Harmony from the USA.

I just want to record this historic day: the election of the first black President of the United States of America.

Recently in the U.K. we celebrated the bicentenary of the the Act of Parliament to abolish the slave trade in the U.K., and the work of William Wilberforce. Americans are drawing parallels today with the work of Martin Luther King a few decades ago, and of course there are the events of the American Civil War in between. African Americans are rightly excited by this development, which they have waited for for a long time, and it will be interesting to see how the river of racial equality continues to flow over the next few years.

"God bless America!"

Link to Obama's impressive victory speech.