[m i a o w] the cat

I spent the majority of yesterday cycling around Rottnest Island. So there are some perks to four days of conference hell, punctuated only by brief flashes of wonder (which were the morning/afternoon tea and lunch breaks). The ‘Gala Dinner’ was a scary faux Greek-wedding affair, with dodgy food, free flowing alcohol and people old enough to know better dancing to the aptly named horrifying cover band ‘Our Generation’. My table was non-plussed - it was anything but our generation - and cranked out the hits with such relentless predictability that we began guessing what they would play next…My Sharona…River Deep, Mountain High…they were infatigable. I was not.

Yesterday most people left, but my intrepid boss wanted to go to Rottnest Island. I - the humble employee - agreed. Of course it inevitably cost more than I could afford, and, of course, he (on his comparably stratospheric salary) didn’t notice. So I kept getting out my poor little exhausted plastic square. The weather on the way over was completely dire - slashing rain, huge waves, howling wind - in fact, it was so exciting that I didn’t feel seasick at all! Once we got there it cleared, and thus I am sunburnt. Again. Rottnest Island is extremely beautiful - and having completed my reconnaissance by bicycle, I have decided that M and I must return there by boat. The water is so clear and the Quokkas! Let me just say that they were lucky that I didn’t have a basket attached my bike, or I would have taken one with me. At least one. I took an obsessive amount of photos of a Quokka that had a little tiny Quok in it’s pouch - I almost died of its cuteness.

I am typing from the [gasp] Qantas Club at Perth airport - smuggled in by my boss. Bliss. Free internet, coffee, tea and trashy magazines that, alas, I cannot indulge in. It would only confirm my blondeness to the other conference people that are lurking about. There are accented blokes in suits doing deals on their phones all around my cubicle and I am feeling very jet set. Oh. Flight has been delayed half an hour. It takes So Long to get back to Melbourne. Gah. I’d best go and find a phone and begin bartering for accomodation.