Tag: conferences

Adelaide and back again – part 1

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

I didn’t know what to call this so I sort of borrowed  something from Tolkein  “There and back again” otherwise known as “The Hobbit”  I don’t think I have violated any copyright..

Not quite fully packed – but close. I will set off at 7am tomorrow and should, allowing for breaks, be in Adelaide by noon. The first session will start tomorrow night around 6:30. Sounds odd, I know, but that allows everyone to get there, get settled and for the general business of roll call and agenda to be gotten out of the way, a get together for light refreshments  and that concludes the Ist Session. From the 2nd Session onwards it will be full on for the next two days.  The Dinner is on the Tuesday night, but I will not be attending that. I will, instead, stay in my hotel working on things that I need to get brought up to days – like my  diary. I’ll probably go out and bring something in and have  food here in my hotel room.

Monday am

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Ah yes, they were built to last in these days. This was at the service station when I pulled in.

Our visitor dog (Yogi) is still with us and he should be going back home today. It is only 6:20 and I don’t leave until about 7am. I do not like travelling on the road out of here in the dark so I generally wait until the sun is up. In summer time this means leaving about 6am. As far as I am aware, Jim is doing fine after his operation and should be home tomorrow, however, I think his wife is coming to collect Yogi sometime this afternoon after she has been at the hospital.  He’s been no bother and my two are still ignoring him, although I have to say that they let him use their bed yesterday  :o)  Regrettably, my two, whilst loveable , are not really very sociable when it comes to other dogs. But then, they have always been with me, Chienna six weeks after she was born and  Mannie  since he was adopted ten years ago. They are very much family dogs and they like people – just not other dogs.

The drive down here to Adelaide was very quiet until just about ten miles out of town. There was a smash on the inbound highway and two of the lanes were closed off and traffic was backed up for miles. Took me longer to travel these miles than it took me to travel down from Port Wakefield – 100 kilometres away.   In the early stages of the drive I was thankful for my  instance of not travelling at night because there was quite a few Kangaroos dead at the side of the road, plus a couple of foxes. Ok for a big truck not not in my  Ford.

Tuesday

After the introduction last night the first real session starts today. Good sleep, but it’s cold down here. I think it’s colder here than it is at home. Glad I brought a really heavy pullover with me :o) Although I have to say that the conference centre was well heated, so that was not a problem. Calling home during a break I found out that Yogi went home on Monday afternoon. And on the subject of going home, we believe that the business of the conference  will be concluded by noon on Wednesday and since the emergency meeting has been cancelled, I may get home on Wednesday afternoon. Depends what I have to do here.

continued.

Firetrucks and Conferences

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs

20130422_185132The Monday drive to Adelaide was very good. It was a nice clear day and I didn’t meet any rain until I was already in Adelaide. I met up with a friend and had coffee and cake.  Had a very interesting afternoon.  I did deliver the paperwork I was asked to at North Adelaide and posted the other things off at the Central Post Office. In the evening I had some excitement as two big fire trucks, with sirens blaring and lights flashing came around the corner and, much to my concern, parked at the front of the hotel – right underneath my room window. The reason I saw them coming was simply because I was standing at the window watching the rain come hammering down.  Anyway, they were there for about 40 minutes and it turned out to be a board fault that triggered the alarm.  I know the photograph is not all that great but it really is one of the fire trucks underneath my window at the hotel.    Sleep ??   Slept like the proverbial log.

Tuesday and the conference was good as conferences go – more ‘touchy-feely’ than controversial,  wandered round the issues without really getting to grips with them.  All broke up warm and fuzzy without anything being really settled and the communication issue still not resolved.

By the time the conference finished up it was too late to start driving back home. I really didn’t feel like a five hour drive in the dark, so I stayed  until the following morning. I was on my way by 06:10 and yes it was dark but the road out of Adelaide is a four lane divided highway for 100 kilometres and by the time I reached the end the sun was coming up and I did the rest of the journey in daylight arriving home at 10:45. Hitting a Kangaroo always ends up badly for a private vehicle as well as the kangaroo. They are big and solid and while running into one kills the animal, it also destroys the whole front of your car – it’s a write-off.  This has never happened to me but it did happen to several friends. Most of the time you are  all right – just the odd occasion when they decide to move around in the general direction of the roadway.