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.

To the Embassy

Yes, if everything goes well, I will be attending the American Society of Haematology Scientific Meeting scheduled for December in Atlanta, Georgia. Things had been arranged, and I would be attending an interview at the embassy tomorrow morning.

Tickets, passport, hotel bookings, conference pass, and sponsor confirmation were already in the bag. And the last thing I needed to sort out was the 2 by 2 inches photograph for the visa. And that was taken earlier at Bangsar Village. I was glad that the moment I mentioned that the photos were US visas, the lady behind the counter knew exactly what I meant.

I have cancelled the morning clinic, and I would be doing a later rounds than usual tomorrow. The driver would be taking me there, so, I did not have to worry about parking and transport. I picked up a 10 am slot so as not to rush in during the peak traffic hours. Hopefully things could be sorted out in time so that I could be at the hospital before noon.

I really didn't know what to expect, so, I just brought with me all my documents and hope for the best ......

More on my Atlanta trip here.

More Talks

Checked in and now listening to a dinner symposium. Or at least I was trying to. Need to get on with dinner, then finish of my slides. I probably need another couple of hours work before things were sorted.

It was nice catching up with old colleagues. Most I then were here, but I must say, the temptation to go out into town was really high.

The talks so far had been OK, although some of them were rather dry. Hungry though. Must. Listen. To. Talk.

Roti First

Breakfast. Roti telur. Before setting off to Melaka. Great idea. I might as well do that as the traffic turning out from Subang Jaya would be murder at this hour. It was just before 8.30 am when I was done with the ward round and thought it was far too early to set off just yet.

I have a few items to pick up from the apartment as well. So, Bangsar, then off to Melaka! Woohoo!