The final day at YAPC was a little too bizaare. There are too many things that seemed improbable. Anyway to sum up:
After the auction (this was a stranger event even than last year - the least strange was the london.pm official colour for the next year being auctioned off for 450eur as the highest lot) many of us gathered together and went to movenpick for eating. A couple of beers there, and then a load of us formed a splinter party and went off to find a bar. We found one approrpriatly that was coloured orange, and settled in for the night.
Dan, Greg, Jos and I got into a fairly in-depth conversation about random stuff that I'm much to lazy to summerize here, but was a very interesting conversation indeed. At about one o'clock I decided it was time for bed (I had to be up at 6:00AM) and a few of the others agreed. We went back off to the hotel and dropped off several people at various detinations before finally Greg, Francoise and I entered our hotel. In the lobby madness greated us. jns, DrHyde, cwest and others were in the process of drinking the hotel dry. Greg and I had really no choice but to join the madness. A bavarian folk singer appeared out of nowhere and started playing some good 'ol blues, and eventually I got a hold on the guitar and played some sing-along-songs. At some point around this time two Italian men entered the lobby, one in a wheel chair. Just as they passed the one in the wheelchair stood up and shouted "I can walk! I can walk!" (in italian of course). This sent the group into more laughter. Eventually at 4AM we decided that it would be better to leave on a good note, rather than peter away to bed, so we had a good laugh and then went off to our seperate rooms.
At 6:54 the phone rang in the room and told me the taxi was waiting downstairs to take me to the airport. This was both good and bad - it was good because the hotel had called the taxi for me - it was bad because my alarm had not gone off and I was still asleep. I threw on some clothes, grabbed my bags, and ran.
I made it to the airport at 7:30 which was good, as my flight (according to the itinerary I'd printed off when I booked the flight) left at 9:30. However, what I didn't know is that there had been an itinerary change between me booking the flight and receiving the tickets (tip for future flights: always read the ticket). I had to buy another ticket to get back to london as the ticket was not exchangeable, which was a bad thing, but frankly I was too tired to care.
I got back to the london later than I'd have liked had a bath and went straight to bed. It was very good to see Katrien again, and I'm glad to be home.
All in all the conference was an excellent (yet again) experience, and I'm looking forward to next year. Now its time to edit the various video clips and get back into the swing of going to work, but conferences always give that little boost of energy, and a few ideas to play with.
...sleep is oh soooo goood...
