The Planery

Right after lunch, I attended the celebrated Ham Weissmann Lecture, presented by Prof Alan Burnett of Cardiff. It was held at one if the Planery Halls. And it was a huge hall. Easily accommodating the 20000 delegates or so.

With such big group, the WiFi signal suffered. I wasn't even able to log onto one. Had to revert to my cellular signal, which thankfully was fast as well. So, let's enjoy the talk ....

More on the Atlanta trip here. 

Congress Starting

I have been jet lagged. I have been walking around taking pictures. I have been attending lectures. I have been meeting up with old buddies. But the only thing I have yet to do was to blog. It had been a hectic couple of days to say the least. Very nice experience as the city of Atlanta was not exactly what I expected. It was more easy going, and the weather was milder. And walking around with a camera had been a great experience.

I stayed at the Hilton, about 15 minutes to the Centenary Olympic Park, considered smack right at the center of town. From there, the Congress Center is another 5 minutes away, so was the World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium which I visited yesterday. All together, I snapped close to 300 frames until my battery ran dry. Luckily I brought my charger along.

I attended a couple of talks yesterday, but they were dead boring. I decided to meet up with Specky instead and went out for some sushi dinner at a bar. I spent the evening going through the program. Luckily there was an app for that. I just keyed in my schedule and just followed along.

Before bed, I managed to call both Anita and my Mum, did the post-processing for my snaps, uploaded them to server and Flickr. All automated.

The session this morning started at 7.30. Woke up just after 7 and missed breakfast. Just grabbed a cup of coffee and went straight to the Congress Center. Had a couple of sessions, before a slight break. Then there would be a general session at 12.30 before the afternoon breakout sessions started. All should be done by 5pm today. No time for photos I'm afraid .....

More about the Atlanta trip here.

Jet Lag Setting In

I was fat asleep earlier as planned but was unfortunately woken up by a couple of phone calls from Malaysia.
So, for the past hour, I was wide awake. Looks like it is going to be a long day tomorrow .....

More on the Atlanta trip here.

In Atlanta

The day went on like a blur as soon as I reached Atlanta. I didn't get into any trouble at the Immigrations when I arrived. In fact, it was more straight forward than I expected also I got news that my old friend who I would be meeting tomorrow - Specky - was taken for extra questioning. He flew via Detroit though. He was already in Atlanta when he SMS me just now. No damage done.

As for me, I had a driver waiting for me at the airport, driving me straight to the hotel. It took 25 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. I checked myself in, took my conference badge and registered. I then hit the shower before taking a can to one of the malls.

Anita had given me strict instructions about what to get her. I went to the store as planned, but the item was not available. I had to order it to be picked up in a couple of days time. Payment sorted out, so off I went for some coffee.

The mall - Lenox Square - was about 6 miles from my hotel, a 20 minutes can ride in the heavy traffic. It was not too big, but it had an Apple Store and many designer boutiques. A comfortable space. I got two items - a Nexus 4 and an Ecco pair of shoes - which were not available back home.

I will blog more about the Nexus 4 and the mall after I have some rest. As for tonight, I will hit the shower again soon, order room service and off to bed. At least the day doesn't start until midday tomorrow as far as the conference was concerned.

More about this Atlanta trip here.

A Quick Stop

It took about 15 minutes before the counter could issue a boarding pass for me. The problem? My first name was too long. Hopefully that was not a bad omen. It was soon sorted out when the supervisor arrived to verify things. Boarding pass issued, and off I went to the terminal floor. The shops were just about to be opened then. It was just after 6 in the morning local time after all. Around 2 back home.

A quick phone call to Anita. She had just arrived at Cameron Highlands - a trip planned for the boys, plus her mother. She was about to check in there. They got lost a couple of times, but managed to sort the directions out in the end. The children were behaving themselves I hope.

I was skipping breakfast since I had one earlier on the plane. I'll probably take another nap on the Trans-Atlantic flight. I'll give Anita a ring again before I board. Hopefully, there won't be much issue at the immigrations. I really could do with a nice shower now.

More on my Atlanta trip here.