The busiest week of the year

I'm back in the office again today. I've been here for almost 3 hours now and have been pretty much idling, not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Monday
Last week, I spent Monday preparing for Colloquium getting my presentation done and putting together delegate packs with the student volunteers. I was in at 7/7.30am and had enough time to meet with my supervisor, have a committee meeting, put together delegate packs with student volunteers and finish off my slides. I left the office pretty much at 3.30pm but by then, it had already been an 8 hour day.

I had a personal training session at 4.15pm which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Actually, she made me run on the treadmill for half an hour. Anyone who has ever known me since my era of physical activity (which died about 7 years ago) would know that I do not run. I will do anything. Except run.

My goal was to run without falling off the treadmill/dying because that would have been sooo embarrassing. I was huffing and puffind and apparently my posture is all wrong because I lean forward too much and stomp my feet on the ground too hard. At 20 minutes, she asked if I could go for another 5 minutes. I whimpered that I could try, which of course pleased my trainer. I did go for another 5 minutes and then another 5 minutes more to cool down. Such torture.

Tuesday
I can't remember what I did on Tuesday, except for the fact that I had to put together my presentation for the INSM Conference. I remember being busy because I remember going "Shit. I'm supposed to put together my conference presentation!"

Wednesday
Colloquium was on for the whole day. I was in the office in typical fashion at 7.20am. I wore my new Cue dress, which Lindsay convinced me to get the size 8. I was going to go for the 10 but she provided a compelling argument: If you can wear the smaller size, buy the smaller size lah! It was a busy day, running around making sure things got done. I had to take care of the student volunteers but they were fantastic. I was a bit annoyed after my presentation because there weren't many people there. I ducked out after my session (because we finished early) to see Olivia's presentation and her room was full. I'm supposed to believe that this in no way has to do with the presentation before hers which was titled "Has love turned us into commodities?" It was about online dating sites and how consumers brand themselves. While this is all great and interesting, my own research is no less meaningful and I was disappointed that I didn't get to show as many people as I would have liked how interesting my own research was.

But I suppose in reality, there may only be a handful of people in the world who will be interested in your work. Sometimes, it will probably just only be you. Sad. But true. I was still irate over how the mass majority seems to be suckered into attendance through sheer titillation with an interesting title. But I am a marketer, and well aware of how these things work. Sigh.

I remember being upset and thinking of the promises on the promotional posters for the conference. What's in it for you? Receive feedback on your research from your peers as well as experienced academics! Bah. I got a great comment from Sandy but the only other academics in the room were my own supervisor and the chair of the session. I thought the promo material spewed bullshit. Then I remembered, I was the person who wrote that bullshit. Bah.

I did swipe some leftover Nando's chicken from the colloquium. I figured, I'd worked my butt off for this damn event. I did not get fantastic returns on my investment (of my time and effort), so I decided that free dinner would make up for it. Damien was very appreciative of the free food. Especially since it was his turn to cook and he was ill.

Thursday
I had a social marketing conference at Griffith Southbank over 2 days. It was a very interesting experience to see how it was being run by other people as it was my first external conference. The first session I went to had 2 presentations about pornography and erotica, while the other 2 presentations were by an industry speaker and a person whose paper had been rejected by 2 reviewers but was still accepted for the conference. It wasn't the best of experiences. While the pornography and erotica presentation was interesting, I couldn't help but wonder where the theoretical basis lay and what contribution this research was making. It was reminisce of the day before at colloquium. To make things worse, the chair left halfway through the session. The room had no chair and the last presenter rambled on and on with no argument, no point and no end in sight. One of the conference co-chairs was in the room by then, but did nothing to step in and politely ask the speaker to finish.

Right around the halfway point in the day, I was dehydrated and was eager for the break so I could have a glass of water. But there was none! All the jugs of water were empty. No one had replenished them. There were no caterers to be seen. I didn't feel it was my place (as a lowly student) to ask the chairs to replenish the water. But it was frustrating! I was severely dehydrated all day. I survived on ONE glass of water ALL DAY. While Rebekah and I walked to the dinner venue, I made a pit stop at the news agent to get a bottle of water.

The conference dinner was held at Era Bistro in West End and the food was fabulous! I had seared scallops and braised oxtail for my entree, beef fillet with mash and brocolli for my main and a chocolate tart for my dessert. YUUUUM....... It was sooo good.......... The service was also fabulous. They were very attentive and took very good care of us. It was great.

I finally staggered home at 10pm after a 15-hour day, and collapsed in a heap onto the floor where Damien was watching tv.

Friday
The last day of what by now had felt like a marathon week. I was due to present on Friday at the conference. Things improved as the conference got on its way. By the time it came to my turn to present, it was the last session on the last day and I was the last presenter. *cringe*

Thankfully, all went well. I felt alright about the presentation. I was worried I was taking too long (but the chair said nothing) but it went well. The Q&A session was also good. I was told that I handled that well too. I was worried about the numbers I was going to get, but by the time it was my turn, I had all the right people sitting in on my presentation. It was great.

So now, I'm exhausted just writing this. Maybe I'll write about the weekend some other time. There was so much other stuff that happened, but it's just too much to say here.