Steamed Puddings

I’m in Lorne, Australia at a conference. The resort is lovely and I can hear the sea from my room. Apparently this is the “party” conference of the protein biochemistry world, though I have done well at staying in a professional mindset. I could easily come up with a few project ideas based on the cool science I have seen here already.

Getting here was not without its ordeals. I left home yesterday at 5:30am; GPCW and I shared a taxi to the airport. The flight was uneventful. I knitted another whole blue dishcloth during the time, and chatted with the former chairman of another CRI who sat in our seating area. It’s a small world. Melbourne Airport was a nightmare. The customs line was looooong, and it was obvious that a large flight from China had just landed. I snuck GPCW into the line for Australians, New Zealanders, and their families.

“I’m your sister-in-law,” GPCW said.

“I was going to tell them you were my *partner*,” I replied, smiling. GPCW is in her 40s and is married with two kids.

Thankfully, the nice customs guy didn’t even ask why GPCW was there with me. Baggage claim was a different story. We were four-deep around a single carousel with passengers from Singapore and Shanghai and waited for 45 minutes before being told that the Auckland luggage was available on the other side of the baggage hall - through a messy construction zone and a particularly dense exit line. The minutes for our bus transfer were ticking away, so GPCW and I ran through the area - I’m sure I stepped on lots of toes - but we made it outside just in time to catch the bus before it departed for Lorne. Fortunately it hadn’t even arrived yet! We waited for about 10 minutes before it crawled alongside, swallowing us and our luggage.

The bus trip went very smoothly and I enjoyed a fantastic conversation with a young bioinformatics postdoc from the US who has been working at APAF (in Sydney) for a couple of years. It’s nice to make a new friend right away at a conference.

Lorne is a nice little vacation community and we’re staying in its one largeish resort. We turned up on the bus at 2pm but had to wait until 3pm for our rooms to be ready. In the meantime we valiantly sought food since there had been no chance to snack at the airport. We ended up at a bakery with only the dregs of a selection remaining. The numerous other bakeries, shops, and restaurants along the “main drag” were closed! Apparently February is a slow month around here even though it is a summery vacation month. Maybe the locals have heard that the high here is only 16 °C?

I was lounging in my room upon arrival at the and saw this parrot come to greet me. I immediately thought of StyleyGeek and her fascination with parrots.

Mom and Kim W and others have asked for a picture of my new haircut. I hope this one is suitable.

Now off to the first early-morning session! Breakfast isn’t provided so I’ll rustle something up, though GPCW posits that sitting on thine ass all day doesn’t really require breakfast.