Today was the big day (for me) - giving my keynote first thing at 9.00am. Things weren’t helped by a totally crap night’s sleep - only about 2 hours or so.  Oh well… think I got away with it. Presentation went OK as far as I can tell and some positive comments received afterwards. I did my best to stir things up a bit - in a positive way.

Felt knackered and drained afterwards. Had quick lunch then back to my room for blogging and sleep.

Woke up in time for the opening reception. Quick drink. Then out for a meal with Debbie Campbell of the National Library of Australia. It’s nice to be able to come away and meet up with people I haven’t seen for a long while.

Got some Savlon for my bites and am plastering it on liberally. Exciting stuff, hey!?

Woke up very late - 11.00ish I think - which meant I missed breakfast at the hotel. Not a good start.

Then had to work on my slides for the keynote for a couple of hours. Pretty tedious, but I think I ended up with something coherent and interesting. Will find out tomorrow.

Got peckish at about 2 and decided to head up to the Italian area on Lygon Street for a pizza for lunch. Took a while to get there, but ended up sitting outside a very nice little Italian restaurant with a glass of wine and a pizza which was nice.

Then walked over to the Eureka Tower (south of the river), where I experienced The Edge - which basically involves standing in a small glass-sided cube (including the floor) which is then winched out over the edge of the building at about 285m above ground level. This is done initially with the glass frosted so you can’t see what is happening - though they play you some nice creaking noises while the winching happens. Then the glass clears and you are suddenly able to look straight down 285m!

Cool… but not for those without a head for heights.

I was pretty nervous actually. It is a long way down and they do a good job of building up the suspense.

They got us to lie on the floor and look straight down - felt a bit strange doing this with one other person that I’d never met in the cube but I suppose it did make the effect of the height more dramatic.

Digital cameras weren’t allowed unfortunately. They claimed this was for our protection - though I guess it is really so they can charge and additional $15 for the picture that they take. I’m sorry to say that I coughed up - against my better judgement - just to prove that I’d done it.

Back to the hotel for a quick swim, then out for a meal with the VALA programme and organising committees. We dined out on a terrace just south of the river overlooking the city at night. I had kangaroo, which may not have been too sensible, since it was followed by my worst night’s sleep so far - just before my keynote.

Liddy Neville invited me over to her place at Barwon Head for Sunday lunch today which was very kind. I had a great day, including a quick swim in the Southern Ocean, though not at the famous Bells Beach where the surf was pretty impressive.

I got the train down to South Geelong where Liddy and Stu (who was staying at Liddy’s for a couple of days) picked me up by car. The train was very nice - though the journey itself was somewhat marred by the family from hell getting on at the second stop. They proceeded to shout loudly at each other for the rest of the journey. It’s a bout an hour from Melbourne to Geelong.

After a walk to the beach, a swim, and a quick tour by car of part of the Great Ocean Road around Torquay and Anglesea Liddy knocked up roast lamb which we sat outside to eat with a glass or two of Australian red. Hard to beat to be honest.

I ended up getting bitten to death by mosquitos - not literally… but I’m now suffering the consequences. Oh well.

I got the last train back at about 10.30. Pretty hard to stay awake I have to admit.

I’m in Australia at the moment, in Melbourne for the VALA 2008 libraries conference.  I’m here primarily to give the opening keynote, which I’ll blog about separately on eFoundations.

This is my first trip to Australia.  I like what I’ve seen so far.

I was dreading the trip over, expecting to be very bored and uncomfortable, especially since I ended up travelling in ecomonmy (on a BA flight operated by Quantas).  Well, I was bored and uncomfortable, but no where near as badly as I expected.  I got lucky, getting an empty seat next to me on the first (longer) leg of the journey to Hong Kong.  I’m pretty good at dropping into travel mode these days… adopting a dulled mindset and expecting the worst in terms of delays.

 My journey was, taxi to Bath Spa station, train to Heathrow (via Paddington and Heathrow Express), flight to Melboune (via Hong Kong), car to hotel.  29 hours in all.  We were forced off the plane at Hong Kong, to give a chance to loop thru security, then back on the same plane… why??

I watched 5 or 6 films on the way over.  Can’t remember the details.  I don’t have decent noise-cencelling headphones, which makes the films much harder to watch, though I did enjoy 2 Days in Paris, which reminded me a lot of the old Woody Allen / Diane Keaton films.

Since arriving (late Friday night) I’ve spent some time looking around Melbourne - it’s an easy place to get around.  The trams and trains are very good vale - particularly compared to the UK.  I went to the viewing platform at the top of the Rialto Tower, to the Melbourne Old Gaol, and relaxed in the park outside the Melbourne Museum.  I also went down to St Kilda Beach by tram - getting a bit out of the city, down to the sea for an evening.  Found a very nice resturant at the end of St Kilda Pier, and had a lovely meal of salmon on cous cous.  The view back towards Melbourne was spot on, particularly the tall Eureka Tower, with its gold top section radiating the light from the setting sun.

Photos are on Facebook right now.  I’ll pop them on Flickr in due course.

Over and out for now…