July 12 to 14 Auckland

July 12

Lesley and Sam took me to the airport. Early flight to Auckland was uneventful except that Air New Zealand told me I had two reservations for the same flight. I fixed that when I got to Auckland.

Alison picked me up and we went grocery shopping. Her friend Gail and Colin brought their two-year olds to spend the night. Alison's daughter Donelle brought her kids for supper as well. I went with Tony to take Don Gotterbarn to the airport, and then Alison put on a very big 4 course meal.

July 13

Alison took me to Unitec where I gave a lecture to a group of PhD students in Donald Joyce's class.

She picked me up later and we went with the twins to an 86th birthday party for her father in Pukekohe.

View of valley around Pukekohe

Twins with Alison's Dad's mobility scooters
We then went to her father's where we picked up his car for Alison. We took the twins back to Alison's and fed them dinner as well.

After wine and leftovers I went to bed.

July 14

I worked on my expense account and packed. Tony and I went for a walk.






Alison came and we had lunch. She left me off at the airport and I found my plane was very late.

I changed thanks to Skype and will fly Air New Zealand.

July 10 and 11 Dunedin South Island, New Zealand

July 10 Tony took me to the airport at 6am for my flight to Dunedin. Although it was a gorgeous morning a bit of fog was on the Dunedin runway and after 3 unsuccessful attempts to land, we went to Invercargill where buses took us on the 3-hour trip to Dunedin.

A cab took me to Otago Polytechnic where I met with Sam and Lesley and then met the School CEO. We went to a talk on the Orokonui Ecosanctuary. Then supper at the Speight's Ale House restaurant.

The room I stayed in overlooking rugby stadium
July 11 We spent the rather grey morning working on the SIGCSE website.

The day cleared and we found a geocache very near Lesley and Sam's house on a little track.

We went to the Otago Museum for lunch and a quick look round.

Then we headed to the Otago Peninsula for spectacular scenery.

Back home we heard the grand preparations for the All-Black Spring Boks rugby match that was to be held across the motorway.

See the photos

July 7-9 Auckland, NZ

July 7. Days spent at NAACQ Conference. Alison had broken her toe at the conference banquet!

Alison's Boot

I gave the keynote at the end of the conference talking about the Oral History Project. We checked out of the hotel and went to Alison and Tony's. Alison cooked a big delicious dinner.

July 8. Tony, Don and I went to AUT where I gave a workshop on Alice programming. The person who was to have the accounts set up hadn't done it so we had a slow start. Two high school teachers--Gerard and Malcolm,from AUT Graham, Gordon, Tony, plus Don, and from Otago -- Dale, Lesley and Sam attended. We switched to looking at lots of languages in the afternoon. Then home for another Alison meal.
July 9
We had a lot of trouble getting out of the house. We tried to get a printer hooked up to print the geocache info, never did getr it on my machine. Then we went to the boat to pick up the geocache. I thought that meant walking on a dock and getting it but it meant getting through the yacht club gate for which Tony had the wrong code; getting the dinghy; getting into the dinghy which we nearly swamped (both Don and I had wet rears from the unbalanced load); rowing a long ways to the boat; me doing a very ungraceful entry.

Yacht club

Getting the dinghy

We had coffee and then took the ferry to Waiheke. It was a gorgeous day. Took the bus to Little Oneroa and walked along a track to find the geocache.

Little Oneroa

We found the cache and walked into Oneroa where we bought wine. The winery Alison had gone to in 2006 has gone out of business so I bought Peninsular Vineyard wine. We then took a cab to Mudbrick Winery for lunch.

Found the Cache!

Lunch wine

View from winery

See all the photos

July 6 Auckland

I did not have a July 5 as I was in transit to NZ. I flew business class which was nice. QANTAS gave out pj's.

The plane was a little late and immigration took over an hour. It was raining when I got a cab to the hotel and they let me check in early. Immediately went to breakfast with Alison and Tony and then the conference. Interesting stuff on SFIA and certification.

I took a nap in the afternoon after a huge luncheon. Then I went out to look for something for a sea theme costume. I wasn't successful but when I got back to the room I realized that my red pillow case would work!

The banquet was wild, and I won a prize for the best dancing!!! Me????

July 4 LA --

I slept in for the first time since leaving home. After breakfast of granola and yogurt, I took a trolley to the beach and sat under the pier for shade!




Then I went shopping at a small mall and back to hotel. Had bad pizza before leaving for the airport. At airport security I managed to leave behind my sweater and quart bag of liquids. By the time I went back, they had been logged and I had to sign for them. I hung out in the Qantas lounge; the flight was delayed an hour.

On board the plane the business class passengers got neat grey pajamas. Due to something about loading, each passenger in business got two seats. I managed to be comfortable on the long ride.

July 3 Madrid to LA

Up for breakfast and a long walk to the metro. Thank goodness John Dooley helped me with my big bag. Turns out my plane was very late and I had to rebook everything. Entry into the US in Miami was easy. I had a long chat on the flight with a woman active in WITI.

The rescheduled flight from Miami was late as well. I had spent quite a bit of time in the Ambassadors lounge and when the plane border, a little boy threw up right behind me. Yuk. That delayed the flight even longer. American put me up in the LAX Hilton and gave me food vouchers. It was after one when I got to the hotel -- one wheel is broken on my big bag and it is impossible to pull.

July 2 Madrid

Last day of conference. Phil Boyle gave keynote somewhat on computer history. We finished up what we could of our working group, had paella for lunch at the university and had a rather intense wrap up meeting.

The conference committee had a big wrap up meeting at a lovely bistro across from the library where Daniel Castro did his research.

July 1 Madrid

Phil Long gave the keynote. I did a lot of SIGCSE business. The banquet was held at a venue atop a fancy shipping center.

Amardeep took a video of the CS students singing group Tuna serenading me.

Monday June 30 Madrid

First actual day of the conference. Wendy Hall's keynote was fantastic. I did lots of SIGCSE stuff and worked some on the project. Videoed John Impagliazzo and helped Liz with the audio to prepare to do an interview.

Madrid Civic reception at the Julio Rodriguez Garden involved walking forever in the Park that Daniel Castro had taken Phil and me to two years ago, though I didn't realize it was the same park since I didn't see the pond nor the crystal palace this time. It was a real lesson in culture -- one doesn't get any drink or food until the dignitary comes and everyone should be there when he comes. So our time for the reception was a half hour before the reception started! I had to give a thank you to the city official and I tried to do part in Spanish. Needless to say, it was a hoot!

Sunday June 29

A full day of Working Group activity. John Impagliazzo went on the organized tour to Toldeo and another group member missed it but didn't come to work.

Lunch was once again at the Residencia. The opening reception was in the hall. After the reception, I went to a dinner hosted for the keynote speakers in the Madrid Soccer Stadium. We were in an air conditioned venue with big screen TV and a view of the field. We watched the soccer match for the Europe Cup between Germany and Spain. We had of tapas followed by filet mignon. The keynotes were Wendy Hall and her husband Peter, Phil Long from MIT and Roger Boyle (who was one of those pickpocketed on the metro coming in frmo the airport.






(photos courtesy W. Hall)