Messenger Community News – Mortgage Choice Rising Star Award Sharon Gray

The highly competitive field of auctioneering has a new star… and the boys had better watch out!

Sharon Gray, one of the few practicing female auctioneers in the business, has had her talent and skill recognised, taking out the 2008 "Rising Star" Golden Gavel Award.

Sharon, of Jock Gilbert Real Estate, received the accolade at last month’s glittering awards night, hosted by the Society of Auctioneers and Appraisers (SA) Inc. at the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Grainger studio.

While Sharon has a decade of experience in the real estate industry, she’s only taken on the role of auctioneer in recent years, and now there’s no doubt her star is on the rise.

Sharon says she’s honoured to receive the award, particularly as the standard of competition was so high, and she encourages all practicing auctioneers to take up the challenge and enter in next year’s event.

Jock Gilbert has just been out and about in St Petersburg

Upon arriving during the summer time we found it snowing!

This is a city of amazing culture, of people very proud of their heritage and contact with the west and of spectacularly preserved historic architecture, mostly consisting of Baroque and neoclassical buildings of the 18th and 19th centuries, like the Church of the Savior on Blood designed in the Russian revival style commemorated the place where Alexander II of Russia was assassinated in 1881.

Founded in May 1703, St Petersburg became the capital of Russia on May 8, 1713 and whilst the city has had a few name changes and only as recently as September 1991 was renamed St Petersburg, the city’s proximity to the border and anti-Soviet armies forced the Bolsheviks under Lenin to transfer the capital back to Moscow in March 1918. This has created a strong competition between the 2 cities, but it seems that St Petersburg has no desire to become the capital city again. The rivalry between the 2 cities was likened to that of Melbourne, Sydney but covering 3 centuries!