Thursday, April 28

This morning I woke up to a beautiful dawn sky, because I had left the curtains open last night in my third floor room at the Travelodge on Dublin Road in Limerick. I asked at reception and then walked ten minutes to a bus stop where I got the 304 into the centre.

I had booked this hotel because it was only five hundred metres from the university who are the local organisers of Global Learn, an AACE conference that I will be attending. I received some mail yesterday that mentioned the conference venue for the first time. The conference is in the Savoy Hotel in the centre of the city. My hotel is not convenient for the conference at all, unless convenience measn getting as far away as possible from the other attendees.

Limerick is not large and I found the Savoy within seconds of getting off the bus at the terminus. I registered and then watched the presentations in the room I am due to present in, in order to get a feel of the conference and the venue. I skipped lunch to drastically rewrite my slideshow: to dumb it down, or at least make it less dense and demanding. While I was doing this I carefully tested my laptop against the projection system, and set it up ready to roll.

In a classic of conference bumbling an overlarge man with long grey hair unplugged my laptop just before my presentation, because he “needed the socket” for his laptop although he didn’t have the right adaptor and tried to take mine. “Oh sorry, man, did I do something wrong? Hope it hasn’t put you off!”

My presentation started a few minutes late since I had to completely restart, and reset my laptop to work with the projector. The movies I had planned to show refused to start and would have needed another ten minutes to get going. I wasn’t put off though, no sirree.

Now I am outside and wandering around the centre to find a light snack, which I will fail to find. I contemplate asking this man what he is eating and where he got it, but I decide not to. There are not many statues in the centre of Limerick but I have spotted one.

Later I will find myself being sociable. This will involve eating at Marino, an upmarket pizza place which emphasises its authentic italian-ness. I will have a Hot Americano which will be genuinely nice.