Royalty, Pens and a Valley Girl!

Today I attended the "Women As Global Leaders" conference in Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi. I'm so happy I decided to stay here longer because, among many other reasons, I got to go to this and hear some of the world's better known people talk.
Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan was there. Her presentation was great and oh my God she's amazing. She is so beautiful, elegant, graceful. She seems to be a true queen.
Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, was talking too. A very good presentation, although she seemed almost too optimistic, if that's a fault. But all in all, I was very impressed by her. She was the only one who stressed the importance of following up on the conference. That is, its all well and good to get together for a day and talk about all that needs to be done, but its another to actually DO something about it all afterwards!
Shaikha Lubna, Minister of the Economy UAE, spoke and was very impressive. She was intelligent and articulate.
Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair, gave a presentation, and although it was obvious that she was both well-spoken and intelligent, her speech was boring. If we wanted to hear about the history of Human Rights law we could buy a book and read about it. However, she chose to give us a long winded and tedious account of the whole process. Although, if it was shorter it may not have seemed as bad!

As in any gathering of over 1 person, there were alot of strange people there. And as is usually the case in my life, they flocked to me like a moth to a flame. I mean, do I have a stamp on my forehead saying, come talk to me, I'll feel sorry for you and have a chat?? Maybe. Anyhow, Cherie was in the middle of her LONG speech, and there was a man of chinese origin, perhaps, a couple of seats away from me. I'm not joking when I say that it must have been a half hour into her monologue, when this guy leans over to me and in a tone much too loud for the place and occasion asked me
"Who exactly is that talking now?!?!"
So as you can imagine, I was a little more than surprised. Firstly, because it was Tony Blair's WIFE and he had been listening for a half hour, and Secondly, because he chose to scream the question at me!!
Slightly off-put and a little more than annoyed, I quietly told him who it was.
"WHO?!?!"
I told him again.."Cherie Booth"
"CHERIE WHO?!?!"
"Cherie...Booth..."
"HUH??!!"
"Tony Blair's wife ok?!? Now, I'm trying to listen so can you please be quiet?"

Apparently that wasn't rude enough for him because 5 minutes later he leaned his excess body fat across the table and screaming over the salt and pepper shakers asked me where I was from!!
Seemingly, he didnt read the title of the conference and thought he was going speed dating!!

And what about the chewing gum popping, hair twisting valley girl that sat next to me in the second half.
"Didn't you like think that like the stuff like this morning were so like INSPIRING? I mean, like its so totally unbelievable that like there's all these people here in this room like talking about like women! Like I mean like WOW right?" *chomp, chomp, chew, blow, burst, chew, chomp*
Such an observant young girl! Nothing gets past her huh?

What about the guy who snatched my pen out of my hand! "Hey, that's a nice pen" shoving the delicate nib of it onto his paper, meanwhile slobbering over the gold plated cover. It's a Montegrappa, not a Biro, you idiot, keep your hands off other peoples stuff! Especially if that stuff is a ridiculously expensive, limited edition Motegrappa!
If it's one thing that I hate, it's people who snatch. It's rude, its intrusive and it's annoying!!
Like the girl everyone knows who grabs your new expensive bracelet and trys to squeeze it over her wrist...without opening the catch! Aaaaaarrrrgggggghhhhhhh!

Or the girl in the bathroom, who while standing in line queuing to pee, decided to voluntarily tell me that her parents divorced when she was young but she's "doing alright now, even though it was tough on her and caused her serious psychological damage which will probably cause her to beat up her children in the future..." She was American by the way....aren't they always though!

I mean...do I ATTRACT them? *sob* Lord, I think I do! Still though, it makes for some interesting stories. *sigh*