What is the water footprint of 3 dozens of roses? In my case it was a wet boot of my car, a small price to pay thanking our colleagues who made IFAD's World Water Day a success.
Placemats are a fine way to convey a message. Gosh, I myself didn't know that for every kcal I consume -and I eat a lot- I consume almost a liter of water. And at my age I have to get rid of that as well. Small wonder the Dutch had to put dikes around them. Not so much to keep the salt water out as much as keep the neighbours from peeping in.
As at my early arrival I was hijacked for 'important corporate matters', it was Audrey who had the honor of facing our IFAD colleagues during the morning hours on all matters water from her conveniently located spot at the entrance of the restaurant. She must have pointed plenty many colleagues to the exhibit in the Qatar Information Centre because when I finally made it to do my turn of the Q+A (not QA) many water-related brochures and documents had already found new owners. We shall introduce the polluter-pays-principle to reduce possible wastage of precious knowledge!
My turn on the couch -not to be confounded with the work of our IFAD shrink- drew some notable visitors who had to pull a number to be seated. They were all offered a glass of water - from the tap. Frank wanted to know whether his proposed text on water would find my approval (which it did).
'Is this worth your while' inquired Rodney and 'Aren't you on your way to this Agricultural Water in Africa bash in Tunis' (yes to both). And then Abla draped herself next to me for a detailed briefing on her latest watery conquests in Eritrea. After a most vivid discussion on what is going well and what is doing not so fine, respectively 'when you come to support the new IFAD programme in September we can have a big lobster' and 'we really need to beef up the Zoba performance'.
I briefly thought of referring to the Ethics Commission and Mrs. Merkel (but it turned out that Zoba wasn't Greek) but then dropped the idea as I am fond of the crustacean (thermidor or a la plancha). All in all a wonderful experience which next time round we may want to share with our neighbours from the quartiere."
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