Covent Garden

For the first couple of days in London, I had been trying to convince the others in my group to give Covent Garden a visit. Yes, some of them did ask if there was a garden there. Resisting to laugh, I explained to them that it was an old market, smack in the middle of town, right next to Chinatown. But on the first day, we were too tired to venture out, and on the third day, we went towards Bayswater instead. Finally, on the sunny Saturday afternoon, I got my wish.

I set out from Oxford Circus, taking on the crowd, walked through Carnaby Street and Soho towards Chinatown. I then took one of the back alley to the Cath Kidston Store - more on that later. Another turn, and I was right into the market. The bright sunny afternoon really lifted my mood - unfortunately the mood included shopping, after which I was broke. I spend a good couple of hours sat at the cafe, enjoying the scene as well as mingling with the crowd. There were many open cafes and beer gardens round there, and also street performers aplenty. On one side of the market, they had rows of stalls selling high quality artwork, which unfortunately did not come cheap. But if you actually have some extra cash, it was definitely worth spending there. I bought a few shirts for my boys at David and Goliath.

I topped off the afternoon by having some halal ramen at Chinatown. At the time, the West End crowd were building up for the evening show at the theaters. It was getting dark when I finally left. A nice day out indeed.

The Journey Home

A 12 hour flight used to be a doodle when I was a student. Now it was becoming a drag. I guess I was starting to show my age actually. But this flight being MAS were amongst the best as far as economy class was concerned. For business, take one of the Middle Eastern carriers, but with the drawback would be having to transit on the way rather than a direct one. And transit could be a pain.

The flight coming and out this time around was a bit too rocky for my liking, especially across the Andaman Sea. But the in flight service was good as usual, and I managed to catch some movies, a luxury really. On the flight back, I slept for about four hours, as it would be late afternoon at landing, and I didn't want to be wide awake tonight.

I also noticed that this being the flagship MAS flight - MH001 - the crew were also rather senior, but definitely offered great service. Experience counts I was sure. The flight landed on time, but as usual, it took nearly 45 minutes for my luggage to clear through. I didn't have a choice but to check in from the amount of shopping I did.

Unfortunately I had to work tomorrow. Now with unpacking done and the children in bed, I was chatting with Anita about the trip. She wished that she could come along. And so did I. Maybe in the next couple of years, as it would not be cheap to bring the two boys along. When I showed the photos from my trip last weekend, both of them were excited. So much so that Irfan actually slept in one of the T shirt I brought home for him.

Just Arrived

Thought I just made a quick entry as I have just landed and was halfway across to KL Sentral with my bags on tow. Then a short taxi ride home. Flight landed on time and it was 6.30 pm local time at the minute. With the 6 hours sleep I had, I thought I might be ready for bed again very soon. Rather starving now, so looking forward to dinner with Anita and the boys. Will blog more later.

Thanks again to the well wisher for a safe flight home!

Final Thoughts

Coming to the end of the Conference, I thought that I would be in a better position to give an overall impression o the past four days, in terms of the conference was concerned. The single word review would have been - "efficient". First of all, let me be clear here, I would not be discussing the educational value of what I learned here in this entry. That would be boring.

First of all, the talks were cut into 25 minutes chunks in a symposium format around a single topic. The whole symposium was 90 minutes max, with the speakers taking questions at the end. There were up to eight session running concurrently, so one can pick their topic of interest and turn up at the assigned hall. The 25 minutes really kept my focus - that was how long my concentration level was. I dis not have time to fall asleep. Everything just snapped past really fast.

The venue was huge, but well signed and very well staffed. All the staffs there wore bright uniforms for easy identification and they always knew the answer of what we wanted to know. There were plenty of then around as well to direct the delegates. The signs started from where we alight the train to come to the venue, not just at the venue.

Since the pace of the meeting was fast, there were no such thing as long introduction of the speakers. It helped when they were world-renowned. Tree was no ceremonial speech prior, even during the opening ceremony. The opening was essentially a welcoming speech by the Congress President. It was done in 15 minutes. At the end, there were no such things as gifts or survenir. Quick in, quick out. All was done. In Malaysia, we had to welcome the VIPs, corsages included of course. Then give them a huge take-aways to thank them for turning up, as if they contributes to science! A waste of time.

Next, there was plenty of space! There were cafe everywhere, so getting yourself filled up, was never an issue. There was free, superfast internet for anyone with a device as well as free terminal available for everyone else. This time around, following the FDA cutback on gifts from the Pharma company, none of the Pharma booth were giving away freebies. There were free coffees though, served by proper barristas.

Unfortunately, for such a modern place the AV system at the venue was actually rather backwards. Slides were blurry, and sometimes, the speakers were having issues getting the right slides or advancing them. one of the speakers actually brought his own Mac, and it took about 5 minutes of fiddling before he could start his lecture. The system only work well if the slides were pre-loaded. Some of the rooms were too small for concurrent sessions. The organisers prepared an overflow area for live cast of the talk, but there were often lag and interference. They could have definitely done better here. Find a big enough venue for the concurrent sessions for a start.

Lunch was a typical western affair, sandwiches, crisps and yoghurt. You just bring your lunch pack into the lecture rooms for the lynch debate, so all the time, there were hardly a break in terms of educational program. There was a common prayer room, but no place for wudhu'.

All in all, we still have much to catch up in terms of optimising a packed program such as this. We can definitely do it as we had venues and equipment. The problem usually lies in underestimating the task of organising such event. We must do without the pomp and the habit of long unnecessary speech by the obligatory VIPs, as well as having a budget just for their survenirs, let alone giving them away.

Time to Pack

Finally it has come to the time when one has to pack, both the shoppings and the memory, with plenty of pictures of course. Checking out would be at noon, and our pick-up to the Airport would be sometime around 7 pm - our flight would be at 10 pm. The program at EHA Conference would end by noon, where we would have lunch. So, I would have a good 5 hours in the afternoon of free time.

But the first order of the day was to pack. I woke up early as I drifted to sleep last night just after 10. So, I was glad to get out of bed by 5 this morning, only to really pick myself up after FaceTiming home. After saying good morning to the boys and Anita, and showing what would be in store for them when I reach home, I started packing. I realised then how much stuff I bought. Luckily my bag was big, with plenty of space to fill. The conference bag alone was rather big.

So, the plan today would be to check out after breakfast, head out to the Conference venue in my small sling bag - the conference bag was in the big one - then after lunch, I would be heading back into town, but this time to concentrate on photography. I plan just to take my iPhone 4 rather than the LX3, and would do some black and white street photography. I was running out of cash anyhow. Another day of adventure - before sleeping it off on the flight back home!

Oh dear! Just heard the news that it would be raining all day today in London. Oh, well!