4th May - Penticton, Okanagan College, hospital and Observatory

Great couple of days in Penticton. Met Jean and Dennis who have been incredibly welcoming. Sue describes day 1 but I have provided a couple of pictures above. (Wine tasting in red rooster and view from Lost Moose Lodge where we had dinner).

Day 2 in Penticton (Tues 4th May). Visit Okanagan College and Donna (the regional dean) - incredibly exciting $28m project. Interesting to hear about their aspirations for a zero footprint, mixed community use building that will bring students 'back in' to the penticton area and the way in which they have tried to marry aspirational design with function and purpose - Donna's energy was infectious.

Followed by visit to Pentiction Regional Hospital - of particular note was the outreach public health programmes with First Nations and that many social services (home care, residential care etc...) are the responsibility of the health service not a seperate social service - an ageing population makes their future an interesting one just like in the UK. Again, these facilities are not entirely bankrolled by the government - Donna has raised $5m and the hospital $1.5m from the community.

Lunch at Linden Gardens followed by a trip into the unknown at White Lake Radio Astrophysical Observatory. Fascinating and humbling. Suffice to say here, we are very small parts of a very large universe......Third Multi club presentation tonight in Summerland.