Project 52 week 14

I've been looking forward to this week for ages.

Sunday

 Waxy Jersey Royals

Jersey Lobster

My in-laws arrived on Sunday, just in time to see me before I left for Harrogate. They came down to work on their boat, which had been overwintered in Jersey. I decided to treat them to a nice meal, as I really wasn't sure what they would be eating when I was away. Neither M nor Cass are any good in the kitchen:-)

Monday

 I was just thinking that all my flowers would be dead by the time I returned, but it is nicer to leave some for the visitors.

I spent the morning packing and headed off to the airport. The plane was delayed by a couple of hours, so I cooled my heels with a good book on my kindle. The train from Manchester was easy, as was the one from Leeds, although it stopped at every tiny station en route. Eventually I arrived and took a taxi to the hotel where I was sharing a room with Marisa for 1 night. We soon met up and ended up having a meal in an Indian restaurant with some of the other delegates.

Tuesday

This was SIG( Special Interest Group) day, and I was booked to go to the BEsig (Business English) Pre Conference Event. It was very well done, with only two speakers for the day. In the morning we had Martin Lisboa, who was excellent and in the afternoon Fiona Mee Alvarez from York Associates did an great session for two and a half hours. I sat next to Candy, and renewed my acquaintance with some of the others, and made some new contacts too. In the evening we moved into our house which we were sharing.

The royal hall, where they had the welcoming session, is really splendid inside. It was a great place to catch up with everyone over a drink. 

That is one of the good things about this kind of conference- the networking!  I think more than half of my PLN were there and we spend a wonderful week catching up and making new friendships.

 

The mayor came to open the conference  and everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to him He told us a bit about the history of the town - he said that he had been a history teacher in the past :-)

Wednesday

In our fridge we found: a bottle of milk, a bottle of champagne and a chocolate gateau ! This was no good, so we skipped the plenary, knowing that it would be recorded, and headed over to Betty's tea-room for breakfast. It was a bit grey and misty, so we were glad to get inside. After breakfast, we wandered down to the conference venue and  separated into groups to go to the sessions which interested us most. It was an enjoyable day, which ended in a local restaurant with loads of people.

Thursday

Today the weather was a little brighter. There is an amazing tree outside our house, which is covered in blossom.

There were some excellent sessions on today, again. I really enjoyed Andreas Grundvig's talk on impoliteness, or using non-adjacency pairs, among others. In the evening I went to the International quiz with my colleague Martin, who wanted to experience everything, as it was his first time at a conference.  We came middle of the table- so not too embarrassing.

Friday

I came away from the sessions with lots to reflect on.

Today nearly all the focus was on the Pecha Kuchas in the evening. They were extremely well done, and only two of the presenters weren't people I was friends with already. 

After the PKs there was an open mike night, which proves yet again how much talent there is amongst our colleagues and peers.  

Saturday

Roseli and Tamas did a good session on mentoring. This was useful for work, so I went along, and was glad that I had.

Time to say our goodbyes :-( Actually I'm all conferenced-out. I stayed until the end, had a coffee with everyone, and then headed off to the train station, where I found myself explaining how to use twitter to a lovely gentleman sitting next to me. It turned out that it was Andrew Wright- of games and activities fame!

We shared a seat until York, where I changed to the London train.

 

Sunday

I flew home on the red-eye, and went straight to bed, having spent last night in the airport. I had been congratulating myself on not catching the cold which was going around at the conference, until I woke up with it. Bleh!!!