Conference in Cairns

Yesterday was a CRAZY day...CRAZY I tell you!

I arrived at the conference to find the company director I was supposed to be traveling with already there. I checked in and got my boarding pass, then went over to sit with him and discuss the situation. Although he honestly believed he would be able to get an exemption on his Australian visa problems, it was just not to be. After an hour of efforts by officials on his behalf, he was told he would not be allowed into Australia.

So...he turned to me and said, "that's okay...you can deliver my presentation."

What!? Me? A presentation on the development of mining interests in Papua New Guinea?

I mean, I know that I re-wrote his paper for him, polishing it up a bit and providing some supporting evidence. But "mining"? That is just not my thing. I know very little about it beyond what I have read in his paper! Still, I boarded the plane, my mind scrambling to figure out a solution to the problem.

Everything seemed to be going fine as we headed down the runway, but as soon as the wheels left the ground, the pilot rather unceremoniously put us right back down and brought us to a screeching halt. An hour later we found ourselves back in the departure lounge waiting for another plane so we could try the whole process again. After a 2.5 hour delay, we finely got airborne and headed to Cairns.

This all would not have been quite so bad had it not been for the [serious] cough and [serious] sniffles that I've been dealing with for the past couple of days. Even today I'm rolling up wads of toilet paper to shove in my bilum [purse] and take to the conference with me as my nose running problem has not even slightly slowed down. Still, I arrived on a beautiful, albeit quite hot, day in Cairns, checked into the hotel that I am splurging on, out of my own pocket, and believe that I'm going to have a nice break.

Well...if I can find someone to make that presentation, that is. Registration for the conference starts in about 45 minutes, and I'll break the news about the Director's no-show then. Hopefully, we'll find a replacement speaker that can deliver the message and presentation I have prepared sometime after that. I am pretty darn sure, however, that the presentation is NOT going to be delivered by me.