A day of business today. Not quite according to plan, but fairly productive. First problem was the local service station had its eftpos down due to a hamfisted break-in attempt. So I promised to call in and pay on my way home, and headed north to Launceston. The sky was particularly lovely with low-lying misty clouds, and a fine display of lenticular cloudes - sort of grey in the middle with bright yellow around the edges. Couldn't find a spot where the sun or the power lines were not in the way, so gave up on getting a photo, but they were truly spectacular.

The meeting with Ian was fairly brief (we having had lunch just last week) but I met his other staff and Sal and I arranged to go out to the site where the work is proposed. Then I headed into town to see if I could track down a diary insert (financial year) that would fit my folder. Inevitably there is no such thing, so I bought a proper diary (one that is undated so I can use it for the rest of the year, and then get a real one for next year), and a set of print-your-own business cards which I feel are pretty essential if I am to look as if I know what I am doing. Then grabbed some lunch and headed back to the office to pick up Sal for the site visit.

I have to confess to spotting a new quilting shop, and fortunately I had my notes with me for the yardage I require for the quilt and so was able to buy that while I was there.

I can understand why LCC has reservations about this site. At first look it is less than promising and might fall into Amenity value rather than heritage value, but i guess this will become clearer once we have done the study.

Sal and I will be splitting the work and the proceeds on this one, so it will not be all that remunerative, especially when I have used some of the money to buy a binder machine and presentation covers for the report. But I guess that will have future usefulness so is an acceptable cost (and tax deductible). I also phoned the Launceston National Trust guy to make contact and hopefully he will be sending me an email so I can forward my CV to him. Have not heard back from the architect, but I guess his priorities are different to mine. Ian tells me he lost of key member of staff who would travel to Tassie to do work for him at the drop of a hat, and so this could be a useful contact.

Anyway, time to put my feet up and eat more baked beans I think. I am hungry and quite tired. But i will put in some time trawling the State Library website to see what their holdings are that may be of interest, and also working out how to break down the costs for research, report writing and site inspections so that we come up with an acceptable figure.