I’m still here

I know I’ve been a little quiet lately and not posting here. Just been so busy, but life is great. Feb was so busy and chaotic getting things done for the conference. My sub-committee and I had a long meeting one Saturday to review abstracts and place them into our program template, it was like spending 3 hours doing a jigsaw. Extremely rewarding seeing the finished product – the prelim program. That was nearly 4 weeks ago and it’s constantly changing – but all good.

In Feb too we had 2 weekends away. The first was to Mandurah Quest Apollo Apartments, a weekend with my family. It was just so good. The pool was just awesome and the canals were on our doorstep. We played lots of games, taught Mum how to play Mahjong and Rod – Canasta, so that was lots of fun. Swam heaps, drank wine and had a fine time. (Photos on FB).

The weekend after that we went camping to Dwellingup with some school buddies, now that was another awesome weekend. It was so hot that weekend we all went swimming in the river, it was unreal at Bob’s crossing, the water was just divine. We used Pete’s kayaks up and down the river, very relaxing. The kids had the best time swimming in their life jackets. It was the perfect weekend with mates. On the way home on that Sunday Rod and I stopped at Rockingham Beach for a glorious swim. I used to swim there when I was young, step back in time.

So that was Feb and now it’s March – the month I have been looking forward too for so long. Beginning of the month it was Rod’s birthday so we went to Just Tapas Bar in Como for dinner with my family. It was nice and we got an awesome discount with Entertainment Card, was nice to try something new and different. That Friday night Rod went out for birthday drinks and that was fun too. There was a group about 6 of us, some Rod’s mates, my bro and his mates, so it was great. Another hot night. I didn’t drink too much as I had a Girls Night the next day at Burswood. A few of my very close school buddies stayed over night at the Holiday Inn (next time it will be the Burswood proper!!!) Anyway we had a ball even though the service was terrible. Cocktails by the pool, mocktails for the pregnant ones, some swimming, lots of talking, talking, eating, drinking, talking and talking and me taking photos (see FB). We all love catching up esp those with kids, get to have a night off and enjoy themselves. We all had the best time and I think this time was much better as we totally loved the chill out time beside the pool!

Last weekend was perfect for me, been a long time since I’ve had a weekend to myself. Chilled out a lot, rested, read, watched a movie, Rod went to a Bucks Day and me to a Hen’s Night.

And now it’s the 14th of March and it’s less than a week until my great Melbourne buddies get married. This is why I wanted March to come. Its gonna be another “Witney Place” reunion with quite a few of us travelling over for the wedding. It’s so gonna rock, I am a bridesmaid. So watch this space I am sure I’ll be posting something next week. Roll on 5pm tomorrow, I’m flying out tomorrow night – Melbs here I come, yet again

And then…… We are going to Phuket for a holiday to meet up with the new husband and wife – cocktails and swimming, just going to be sooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!

Favourite Quotes

*** Photos posted from Adelaide – Click on Past Trips….***

I just wanted to share a few of my favourite things that people at the Adelaide conference said. Some of them are funny, some made me really think outside the box and some I totally loved.

From the “Welcome to Country” by Lewis O’Brien, this sentence really made me and everyone laugh so much, a great way to start the conference,
” Man who runs behind car gets exhausted” – hilarious

From Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw – Keynote Speaker – “Find your Footstool! How to reach your dream – even if its on the very top shelf!”
Irena is hilarious, lovely to listen to and such a great public speaker. I really enjoyed her presentation.
“SOOYCZ – Step out of your comfort zone”
“I am the most UNIQUE entity in the universe”

Rebecca Evans – the winner of Dunn and Wilson award, spoke about her project, ““Preserving our past to educate our future” – which aims to identify, collate and catalogue photographs and other information about library technicians into an image database.
Loved her quote, “Library Technicians are no more important than shelvers or less important than librarians – we all offer something in our own UNIQUE way”. Probably my most favourite quote!!

Thursday afternoon I attended a workshop by Mandy Callow, from Uni of Southern QLD, titled, “Power to the people: Project planning for everybody, everyday!”
I really enjoyed this workshop and learnt a lot. It’s something I’d like to try and get into one day.
Probably why I like this quote a lot – ” All staff in libraries should be involved in projects, not just librarians.

I love Adelaide!!!

It’s gone so fast, can’t believe it’s all over. Have had the best 10 days here, but really looking forward to coming home. Awaiting my flight @ airport now doing this blogging. Haven’t had a chance really to blog much, so will only give a quick summary of what I’ve been up to this past 10 days.

Last weekend Rod and I had a wonderful time hanging out with Vicky, we walked a lot, went to the German village Hahndorf, took tram down to the beach at Glenelg – very blowy, but got to see a wonderful sunset. We played Getaway game lots of fun! I want it at home. You can go on holiday without spending any $$$$. It was so HOT last weekend, I loved it, so good to be away from Perth’s rain!!!

Then I said goodbye to both and checked in on Monday evening. We had a fun night at the factory @ BreakFree, creating our Perth showbags for the stall at the conference. We had dinner at the awesome Indian place down below at our apartments, great food, better price.

Tuesday was the first unofficial day of the confernece, what I love the most – Library Tours. I went on the conservation tour and we visited the Artlab and the State Library of SA. Artlab was so interesting, basically the building is split into 5 or so labs, each doing something different – textiles, objects, paper, projects, so on…… check out their website…. I really enjoyed this tour. Then on to state library, not bad, but Artlab was my fav! I chilled out over lunch and organised my talk one last time. We registered, set up the Perth stall and then had opening drinks, was great to see some old faces again and promote our stall. Went to a pub on Hindley for dinner, The Woolshed, that was pretty good….. Again late to bed as we tended to stay up late talking about the days events, seemed to be a common pattern over the whole week.

Wednesday was opening day for the actual conference, we made sure we were on time for keynote talks. I really wasn’t paying much attenting that morning, psyching myself up for my talk. I didn’t eat much in the breaks, running around, making sure things were done (hey what’s new!!!) My friend Sarah helped me set up the room with minties and fantails and all was ready. It seemed to go so fast the whole thing, I really did enjoy it though and I am pretty proud of myself. I was able to answer questions and it felt so good!!!! The rest of the day was great……. In the evening we went to Boho Pub (awesome reccommendation!!!) It was a little quiet but perfect for our group of 20…. Food was amazing and so cheap. I had a yummy After Dinner Mint cocktail to celebrate my talk being over. Brilliant night, everyone loved the circus theme.

Thursday was another day of papers and workshops, lots of inspiring and passionate LTs!!!!  We had the conference dinner in the evening at the National Wine Centre. Fantastic night, the band was awesome!!! We danced so much to 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s music, before and after main course, it was so much fun. LTs know how to have a gerat time that is for sure!!!! Was so good to have a good dance!!!

Friday we were all a little weary, with going to bed quite late, our “fab four” in my apartment stayed up late again great to talk so much but tiring the next day (hahaha). Lucky we started a little later….. Day went pretty fast. We presented, “Come to Perth” slide show and talk. Went really well. Whole committee’s organising for this really paid off! We had closing drins, always sad to say goodbye to fellow national LTs, but lots have said we’ll see you in Perth (and may even write a paper) so that is all very promising, can’t wait. All the showbags went…… The stall was packed up and some of us headed out for late night shopping. That was fun, with dinner down in East Rundell Street. Supposedly an earlier night, but our last with the “Fab Four”.

Saturday was an awesome day!! Our whole day winery tour of the Barossa Valley. A great way to unwind after an exhausting week. About 12 people from WA and a few other LTs joined a grayline bus tour and headed out to the Barossa. Beautiful sunny day for tasting wine. We visited a couple of boutique family owned wineries, had lunch at Kaesler  (bought some lovely white port). We finished off the day by eating again at the yummy Indian place, so close to home Perfect, yummy food yet again!! Lots of goodbyes said and we had a pretty early night. I even managed to catch the last of the footy final – feel like I’ve been away from civilisation the whole week with no footy news, I can’t wait for the GF, the 2 teams I wanted to be there have made it!

Sunday I visited the State Library of SA – the Mortlock wing is absolutely beautiful…. Took a few photos and wandered through the exhibitions, even saw Bradman’s bat. Spent rest of time shopping and checking out the markets and chilling out!!! So needed it.

It’s been a fantastic 10 days in this beautiful city, I can’t wait to come back when its warmer and go swimming at their beautiful beaches. There is so much to see and do here. Would love more time at the Barossa Valley, there are some lovely cute towns set out amongst the valley.

I have heard some fantastic and interesting papers and attended some great workshops. I really enjoyed visiting ArtLab. Networking with LTs across Australia has been great too. Have met some wonderful people and I hope they come to Perth 2011.

Small selection of photos added:  See the section, “Past Trips” from this amazing 10 day trip to Adealaide.

Told you this would be short (NOT)

Talk is a SUCCESS!!!!

Well it’s done, I just presented my talk, and it went off really well. I was able to ad lib a little bit as I fetl really comfrotable about it. I had a pretty full room, luckily not the size of the hall, but about the size of the UWA Library meeting room. So it was all kind of casual, which helped me a lot. Most of the WA contingent were there, all mingled in around the room, lots of support there, thank you everyone!!! There were quite a few questions and I was able to answer most of them bar one, something about the software we use in the MFD???? Too technical for me, but otherwise all great!!!

I WILL blog later about everything else I’ve done since being in Adeliade, I’m pretty tied but having the best time otehrwise.

 

Ciao for now!!!

The day has finally arrived…..

I can’t believe it has been 2 years to get to this stage. I remember when I was in Melbourne for the 2007 conference thinking, “I can do this, I can write a paper and stand up in front of a large group of people and talk about something happening in my library“. Well it’s only a few days until I present my paper.

I can’t believe I have actually written the paper. I was so scared at first. Like I really liked the idea of doing it but putting pen to paper was pretty difficult to start with, but I got there evenutally with a lot of support from friends near and far and work colleagues, so thanks to you all – you know who you are! It was a lof of hard work and many long hours of editing, re-editing and re-editing again, but it was all worth the experience and the PD sessions I attended, (especially Rachel Green’s).

I am really excited and can’t wait to get to Adelaide. It’s going to be a great weekend spending time with my boyfriend and his sister and seeing the sights. Having a bit of relaxation time and chilling out is just what I need.

Come Monday when I check in and meet up with my LT friends, it will be all go. I plan to try and blog daily about my experiences, so watch this space! (After I’ve presented I will attach my paper and / or presentation to my blog so you can all check it out – if you’re interested).

It’s going to be so much fun, I can’t wait

Adelaide conference is getting close

I know I have been quiet lately and not posting, but I’ve been really busy:

• I’ve now finised my final draft of my conference paper (I plan to “post in the  mail”  this Friday or next Monday at the latest – then I’ll post a copy online for anyone who is interested in reading it)
• The 2011 Perth conference committee have been VERY busy. I’ve drafted a logo and ALIA’s graphic designer has created it into a masterpiece.
• We’ve been working on our presentation for Adelaide – The Convenor has to present a 15 min talk / side presentation on why everyone should come to lovely Perth in 2011!!!!
• Finally we have our PCO on board – yeah: Professional Conference Organiser – ICE - so it’s all happening over here in Perth.

The weather has been lovely and sunny, cold, but no rain – what I love (even though our farmers need the rain).

So its about 6 weeks til Adelaide and then a couple of months til my next holiday. Have waited so long and I am beginning to feel like I do need a break from everything. My mind is filled with conference stuff, paper and power point presentation ideas, holiday planning for next year…….. It’s all full steam ahead for me – well wouldn’t want it any other way. And I am enjoying it all! I can’t wait to present (beginning to feel VERY nervous now….) in Adelaide and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out with our conference organising for 2011.

LT Committee 2011 are a success!!!!

How I could I forget this!  Something so important to myself and 15 other great people from WA…. 16 Library Technicians formed a committee to write and submit a proposal to have the 2011 Library Technician conference here in Perth. We submitted our proposal in April and we were all told a few weeks back that we were SUCCESSFUL!!!! Hooray for us

I am so thrilled we get to go to the next step and organise and present the next LT conference here in good old Perth in September 2011. It’s going to be a very busy couple of years, but we can do it. We have a great team of passionate LT’s who lover their career and are hard workers and we’ll have fun at the same time!

This year the conference is in Adelaide. So far there are about 10 of us going to the conference, from the committee which is great!

I am speaking at this conference, a 15 min talk on my chosen topic. It’s only my 2nd conference and my first as a presenter. I am nervous and excited at the same time. I will have my WA LT’s there for support so it should be fine!

Go Team!!!!