Work is definitely a four letter word. Make no mistake about it. Especially when it requires you to get up a 3:15 am for a phone call. Damn work. Why doesn’t somebody just pay me to do nothing. I am exceptionally good at that and feel I should be compensated appropriately.

After my call, I worked on my talk. It’s a new talk and I hope it is ok. Finally 6 am rolled around and the coffee place was open. I walked over and he saw me coming and said “large latte, right mate?”.  I think I know why this guy’s business is doing well.

I walked over to the convention center around 8:15 and made sure everything was in order. I chatted with some folks, had a cup of tea and then gave my talk. It went pretty well, but still a bit rough.

I watched a couple more talks and had morning tea with everyone. The people were really nice, but nobody would commit to adopting me and moving me to Australia. That was a bit disappointing.

Work was officially done. Yeah!  I headed back to my room and packed up my stuff and headed to the airport. I have a lot of luggage now that I had to go buy a hard case for my camera gear.

I got there a bit early so I did what anyone would do while on vacation. I had a Fat Yak. It was pretty good but not nearly as hoppy as a Colorado Pale Ale.

The flight went off with out a hitch, although the guy serving snacks had such a strong accent I just couldn’t figure out what choices he was offering. I finally said “I’ll just take whatever.”

We landed in Cairns, I collected my bags and went out to get picked up by the gang. Cynthia had written on her iPad in a way that looked like the guys that hold the signs up for people arriving. It said “Dr. Richard Cranium, PhD, MBA” That gave me a serious laugh. It was a joke from a previous trip. So think of a shortened version of Richard and another word for Cranium and you will then get the joke.

We drove to house and it is as amazing as Susanne described. We had a glass of wine and I went for a quick dip in the pool. Wow.

We made some fresh snapper for dinner and hung out on the deck in just incredibly pleasant weather. I was cooked from having had to get up at 3 am and headed to bed about 9 pm. It should be an amazing time here in Cairns.