A bit of general updatery is in order.

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I got out! I got out!

( A trip to the big smoke )

Step 1. Pay cash.
Step 2. Get there.
Step 3. Be told things.
Step 4. Get the photography out of the way
Step 5. Enjoy some quality time with a huge beautiful animal.

( Getting there )

( Actual tiger content, of the institutionalised variety )

( Proper personal tiger contact )

I dedicate this post to emma_in_oz. I tried.

I am damp after a 20 minute wait for a bus, squeezed on a peak hour train. I'm feeling tired and headachy after a big day, vaguely nauseous after my Monday-morning coffee, and thinking seriously about my bladder. I'm clutching enough stuff to put a bag lady to shame, and my feet hurt. At eye level I suddenly notice a belly. A pregnant woman, standing on a crowded train right in front of me?

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Conference planning continued today, although I allowed myself to be annoyed at the expensive consultant (henceforth to be known as the EC) for being 1 1/2 hours late. This was not helped by the surprising new discovery that the EC was only on the clock for two half days a week. That certainly explains both his presence and lack of progress between meetings. However, he gets a lot of credit for being aware of different working styles so we're still communicating OK. Not bad for an ex-lawyer.

Pushed through a couple of choking episodes to last until mid afternoon, which I'm quite pleased about. I'm going to have to find something to soothe the throat and help me swallow that I'm allowed to eat (I miss butter menthols). Warm water did not cut the mustard, but it's worth trying again. The architects have mostly learned to ignore me but the medical supplies people on the other side came to the rescue today.

That "extremely painful" surgical option is starting to look attractive.

( Hospitals and trains )

Went in to town today with Husband to check out the "Monster" DVD sale at the convention centre. I wasn't hopeful of finding anything particularly interesting, but they usually kick up some of those unpopular and wildly obscure films so beloved of my darling one.

( And? )

...but I seem to do my best work in lifts and supermarket queues.

( But first... more trains! )

This morning I observed with amusement two hard core backpacker types emerge blinking into the daylight from the new Perth UG train station. Despite looking capable of traversing the Amazon basin blindfolded (before breakfast), one of them greeted the sight of the shattered wreck of the Murray Street Mall with a fearful "Where the hell are we?".

Not very many people at all on the train this morning. I suspect a few people hedged their bets that the new system would function properly first go.

( But it did! )