I was at a conference in Sydney last week. For some odd reasons, I had no particular feeling towards this outing – be it nervousness, excitement, longing, dreading… nothing! But nonetheless, I had a pretty good start to the conference. I was presented with a Student Travel Award (money to cover airfares of the trip), it wasn’t much but it was nice to be considered. At the welcoming drinks, I even bumped into someone I knew from high school. I had no idea that she was in my scientific field but apparently neither did she! After the initial friendliness start, there weren’t many interactions after that. On the other hand, I got together with another friend from uni and we spent most of the conference to catch up and enjoy each other’s company.
A colleague and I stayed on the 69th floor of the World Tower on Liverpool St. Yep – 69th floor and I can confirm that I am not scare of heights! Our apartment had bedding enough for 6 people for just the 2 of us. So we ended up having our own pirate bedrooms and my colleague’s ensuite bathroom even had a big spa bath. The living room is huge and the indoor balcony overlooked the whole of Darling Harbour but just missed the Opera House and the Bridge – but the view was still absolutely stunning.
A colleague and I stayed on the 69th floor of the World Tower on Liverpool St. Yep – 69th floor and I can confirm that I am not scare of heights! Our apartment had bedding enough for 6 people for just the 2 of us. So we ended up having our own pirate bedrooms and my colleague’s ensuite bathroom even had a big spa bath. The living room is huge and the indoor balcony overlooked the whole of Darling Harbour but just missed the Opera House and the Bridge – but the view was still absolutely stunning.
I had to endure two whole days of conference before my talk on the last day. Nervousness finally kicked in the night before my presentation yet I can’t get myself away from the amazing views of the apartment balcony. So what did I do? Move myself and laptop to the balcony and practise the talk there, and you can imagine how much practising really went on! During that afternoon looking out to the window, I saw the change the weather right in front of my eyes. We had really humid and hot weather in the first couple of days but the heat started to subsided considerably. Initially, I thought the misty wind indicate rain 
but after the confirmation from my colleague that it wasn’t raining, we suspected that what we observed was actually cloud drifting over our building and we caught a glimpse of the middle of a cloud. For dinner, we got some take out pizza from a close-by store (actually just downstairs) and watched a DVD. And basically there goes my preparation for the talk.
The talk went pretty well (as I was told) and I received some very good feedbacks and interests on my project. It was such a relief when it was over. Nevertheless, it was a great experience to be presenting data in front of experts in the field… nervous yet honoured.
but after the confirmation from my colleague that it wasn’t raining, we suspected that what we observed was actually cloud drifting over our building and we caught a glimpse of the middle of a cloud. For dinner, we got some take out pizza from a close-by store (actually just downstairs) and watched a DVD. And basically there goes my preparation for the talk.The talk went pretty well (as I was told) and I received some very good feedbacks and interests on my project. It was such a relief when it was over. Nevertheless, it was a great experience to be presenting data in front of experts in the field… nervous yet honoured.
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