Monday. Panic.
Packing and last minute data analysis due to biologists changing their minds. Had to walk to the bus station at 3.30am, so didn't bother going
to bed.
Tuesday. We're off to see the wizard.
Met up with london.pm-ers, did the airport thing without getting frisked (unusual), flew through the clouds (very Quantum Leap). Hotel
nice and central - though lacking in decent pillows, minibar, and free brekkie. Headed to a beer garden to sample local delicacies - all in
the name of science, of course. The evening saw a large google of geeks (like a gaggle of geese) crammed into a nice local. Managed to put zome
faces to names, or irc nicks. Got to sleep about 1am. This was to be the earliest night of the entire week.
Wednesday. And so it begins.
Was late arriving at the venue, due to a very bad map. Caught the end of Red's talk on GTK and was amused by Schwern. Caught a train to the
middle of nowhere and the speaker's dinner. Felt a little out of place but talked to lots of people and ate far too much. Returned to the hotel to find (surprise, surprise) london.pm still in the pub, so joined them for a round of schnapps. Or three.
Thursday. Busybusybusy.
Got up in time for the opening ceremony, which I'd vaguely promised Foley I'd go to. Saw a talk on Perl 5.8, which I'm considering moving to, and Nick Clark (enthusiastic, as always) talk about speeding things up, which I could do with. Gellyfish provided a contentless, but highly
entertaining, talk on SOAP. Greg proved my point that rotating 3D graphics gets you scientific funding. Thanks to Thomas Klausner, I've been lured over to the dark side of obfuscation and might even try and find time to play some golf. Managed not to make a complete fool of myself in my lightening talk. I *did* warn people there wasn't going to be any code. Damian said the usual things about Perl 6. We had a mini
bio bof, which made a nice change from the usual nargery. I seem to remember that the evening's entertainment involved a conveniently located pub, followed by brandy, cigars and music in Greg's room.
Friday. And then there were four.
I'm managed not to pay much attention in the morning. Damian's Quantum::Superpositions gave Dr Lush and I cunning ideas about Blast (DNA alignment). I'm very tempted to write something along the lines of Acme::Schnapps and Acme::Phylogenetics. I bought a book, failed to
start a purple website faction in the auction and watched half-naked men arm wrestle. In the evening we got rained on, then found a (very orange) bar that wasn't full. Numbers dwindled until 3am, when the survivors headed back to the hotel to find london.pm had kidnapped a Bavarian folk singer from the party next door.
Saturday. Beer foamy.
This was my designated lying-in day. After managing to locate a select group of mongers, we wandered round Munich, ate icecream, found the
river, skimmed stones, and saw a coffee flavoured duck. The Queen laser show at the planetarium just had to be done. Likewise, Oktoberfest,
which was very large and very busy. Still we managed to dance on a table and sing along to 'I will survive'.
Sunday. Playing catchup.
A leisurely breakfast. Wireless in the airport. A long bus journey. An overflowing inbox. Noodles. Sleep very soon.
