A pharmaceutical company invited me to a dinner meeting on Monday at the United Services Club in the CBD. I was very intrigued by the topic. The speaker is a researcher/clinician, who is researching on his theory that Parkinson’s disease is due to prion disease. Prions are the same particles that give rise to mad cow disease. Now, that’s an idea that I have not heard of before, but I can see why it could be plausible, given that Parkinson’s disease always ends up affecting multiple organ systems. No effective therapy for it yet, but perhaps something related to immune therapies will come up in the next 10 years.
Anyway, it was held at this graceful old building in the city, which I was intrigued to know more about. It is set high up on a terrace. When I went inside, it had an old world charm about it, and I was told that it was a sort of club house for high ranking army officials. The wall was hung with war memorabilia. Many of the windows were made of stained glass; unfortunately these didn’t show up very well at night.
I was shown to one of their banquet rooms, and I was happy to see that I knew several of the clinicians there and happily settled into conversation. Food was rather nice, I ended up with a small fancy quiche and a sort of balsamic pesto dressing for entre, a scotch fillet and mash for main, and a chocolate panacotta for dessert.
I made this little sketch during the presentation. I like to draw during meetings and such, as it keeps me awake, and allows me to make little notes along my drawings, which helps me focus. Free flow drinks as well, what’s not to like?
Isn’t it a magnificent looking building? I can only fantasise about what it was like in the old days when there were regal looking officers stepping in and out, with perhaps glamorous looking partners.
Horribly, my night ended with a parking ticket. Bleh. I’ll know better next time than to try and park 20 minutes early in a clearway zone.
