OK. I am blogging from an iMac in some litte coffee shop in the UWA. The keyboard is a floppy plastic thing that appears to be suctioned to the wooden countertop, but what the hell - it’s free. My boss took off to a ‘high level’ meeting five minutes ago, and I took the opportunity to slip away and give myself some necessary computer time. This conference isn’t as bad as the last one - at least I can understand the language, and actually know a few people. I dipped out of the ‘dinner’ (which was apparently more like extensive snacky things) at the winery last night and felt very decadent kicking back in my hotel room - we are two hours behind the time that I’m used to - so I passed out at about 8:30pm.

It was a welcome breathing space, having been a hostess for the past week. Lisa and Dennis let me scam a lift with them to Brisbane - and because they drove (well, Dennis drove - or, to be more specific, did his kind of half driving/half hooning) I was a malleable tagalong and didn’t do much but read my book and go out for a dodgy laksa. Of course, we turned up at the international terminal the next morning and were informed that my instructions were wrong - my flight left from the domestic terminal - thus I got up at 5am instead of sleeping in until a quarter to seven. Grrr. I was hoping that this wasn’t an omen for the next five days - so far it hasn’t been.

Jock and Steph - my very good friends - happened to be in Perth. They met me at the airport and drove me to the university - all waaaay too nice of them, considering that they were flying back to Melbourne that afternoon. It was lovely to see them - I donated them Lisa’s copy of Lauren Henderson’s Freeze My Margarita and they told me what I should do on Sunday - my one day off. I am going to go to Fremantle markets, and then to Rottnest Island to meet the Quokka of my dreams. Jock also commanded me to go to the Sail and Anchor - his fave Perth pub. I am feeling a little bit more confident about travelling with my boss this time. I have a hotel room of my OWN and I am not being such a boneless chicken. Huzzah! Am looking forward to Melbourne on Monday, though I will have only six days or so and will not fit in too much fun. Poor M is taking care of his sickly mother back home.

However, I heard from him yesterday that Oomoo is FINISHED! Oh my goodness - can’t wait to get back. I’ll be able to update mysmallboat.com once I get back to work - am now kicking myself that I didn’t bring my laptop. Times like these make my lust for a wifi card for my Palm T3 reach even greater heights. One of the conference people came back in after lunch having roamed the uni for a wifi point - he found two and was able to check his email etc. I was green eyed with envy. I even squeaked. One day I will get one, and no doubt it will be immediately superseded by something even cooler….d’oh.