So, my companion and I were on our way to the airport...
Tuesday 13 May, 10.35pm. Boarding pass? Check. Delegate and exhibitor lists? Check. Razor? Er...no, but hey, I’ll rock the 3-day-growth look! Passport? 'Er...What do I need a passport for?' says my travelling companion. 'Isn’t Scotland part of the UK?' (no, don’t start, we’re not having that debate here!)
Well, as it turns out, the photo ID that gets us all into Moorgate Towers everyday is perfectly good enough to fly with, inside the UK anyway. Who knew? But more to the point, was it fair that his colleagues were denied the ragging opportunity of a lifetime? Ah well, there’s always something else that can pick on!
Mind you, as he and I were late arriving, our colleagues had decided on an ‘easyjet’ dinner; if you’re late, we won’t wait! To be fair they had been working on setting up the conference since early morning on Tuesday so deserved their break and their dinner. A full-on day of creating help desks, registration areas, the ACT hub, moving banners and signs, testing audio and video equipment and so on is good work in anyone’s book- especially mine as I wasn’t there!
Knowing that there will be 3 more days of hard effort always seems rather daunting at the start but experience will win through.
Glasgow greeted us in the way that Liverpool had left us last year – lovely sunshine and clear blue skies. Even the Clyde can look sparkling in that sort of weather! Our taxi driver from the airport greeted us with ‘This is summer but it won’t last..’. He then regaled us with gleeful stories of the demise of Edinburgh football with the relegation of Hearts and likely drop of Hibernian as well, warming the bones of a St Mirren man!
A late walk around the conference site in the cool late evening with some ‘ACT Annual Conference 2014’ banners flapping in the breeze sent everyone off to bed before an early start. Like kids before Christmas I suspect work will fill too many dreams!
