Up North

I've been away at a conference. It was held in a fine old school - Takapuna Grammar. It opened in 1927, the same year my wee house was built. The original building is an impressive sight and a lovely one to enter.

It's been a fairly intense but very interesting couple of days - a full programme of keynote speakers and seminars, all very relevant with exciting (though at times daunting) possibilities. I am also now sure of these things - three days is a long time for me to be entirely dependent on a PC, laptops are dreary and heavy to drag around, iPads rock. I was going to update the blog while I was away but it's actually a chore uploading and resizing photos without my Mac. Having to tote a laptop around is like tramping with full pack. I heard there is a lot of lead in computers - an awful lot in my HP. Lots of tech savvy, innovative people were using iPads for some aspect of their ICT work.

My next toy - let the saving start!

The motel I was staying at was also in Takapuna and opposite "The Block". I watched the programme through the whole series so it was really interesting to actually see the houses. They were much smaller than I imagined and on a very busy road.

They all looked rather sad and abandoned. Rachel and Tyson's one looked particularly neglected with much of the planting already dead and the lawns long and unkempt. 

I'm not surprised now that they did so poorly at auction. It would have to be a bargain for anyone to choose to live there. I understand the winning couple's house is going to be used as business premises, which makes more sense.

The flights there and back were both smooth, on A320s. The return flight was in this rugby themed one. I've no idea what the significance is of this (it's not as if it's a particularly big year for rugby - you'd think this would have been an idea for Rugby World Cup year) but the interiors were new and relatively comfortable.