Saturday Came and Went
Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 6:43AM 
This would be the second talk I did this year. I used to do a lot more talks at conference during my time at Universiti Malaya. Now that I have moved on, the demand on my time was a bit different. But I still said yes every time I was approached. I had another three engagements on the cards by June. Most of them would be in town, the other in Penang in April.
But for the talk yesterday, the timing was a bit off. It was a post-call day, and initially, I planned to close my clinic that morning. I changed my mind a few weeks back and limited the clinic until 11. It turned out that I only managed to sort out my ward patients by 10.30. I could only finish the clinic at 12 noon. That was followed by some other review and referrals. I had to forget about making this a short morning.
I rushed to my apartment for a quick lunch, and then rushed to KL Sentral where the talk was being held. Made it there in plenty of time. I fuelled myself up with coffee, and went through with my session. The council meeting came next and by the time I reached home at 7, I was completely spent.
I ended up sleeping in front of the TV while waiting for United to play QPR last night - United won and went 15 points clear at the top. A long day indeed ....
ASH 2012, Conference, talk in Diary 
How was Atlanta?
I must confess that Atlanta did not offer me with much insight about the US. Maybe because my schedule was packed. Maybe it was the winter weather. And also maybe because I did not have the chance to explore more than just the downtown area.
The food was alright. Hotel was a typical fare which you would expect from a global chain. An a very 70s building to boot. Apart from the Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola, there was nothing much that I missed. My schedule was full enough that I didn't even had the chance to do the CNN tour. By the time the lectures were done, I was too tired to do much else but to sleep. On a few occasion, I actually had a snooze at the room while waiting for dinner.
Lenox Mall provided a slight reprieve even though it wasn't great. Anita got what she ordered off me, so she should be happy with what I got for her. Even the Apple Store there was not inspirational. Not like then one in London, where I felt the urge to shop when I entered the store. Atlanta was pretty mk much all business I'm afraid.
And then there was the small matter of security. I felt comfortable walking around in London in the evenings. Not so much in Atlanta. Even walking from the Congress Center, I was approached by the locals on a couple of occasion. I felt intimidated and from then on, I didn't bring my camera out and always travel with company. And this was during a conference with more than 20000 delegates. I didn't feel safe. I was fine in a group though.
So, I only went out to enjoy the sights on the first day, and on the Saturday evening. Shopping opportunity was also rather limited. I didn't catch any movie, or venture into cafes as I didn't feel the freedom. I could only enjoy taking my camera out of I feel carefree. It was not something that in Atlanta during my 5 nights stay there.
Would I bring my family here in the future? Don't think so. I had been blessed before to be able to travel to various parts of the world. The first trip to America however was rather anticlimactic. The Congress was great however and it was well organised. I will blog about the Congress proper on a later entry. At the end of the stay, I was glad to be flying home .......
More about the Atlanta trip here.