One day at a time

Misty Morning - 4 Originally uploaded by PD Blog Pics Picture from the venue for the management retreat early on Friday (29 May) morning - shows some of the destruction brought to the area on Black Saturday, but there is also new growth all around too.

Spending the next two days out of the office in the yarra valley. First day has gone well, looking forward to tomorrow's discussions. -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Great show, better hosts & my favourite came second again. Highlight for me was UK finishing in the top five, where we belong. The challenge for Oslo 2010 will be to win the contest. ----------------------------------------- Sent by emoze push mail

I have enjoyed watching the Semi Finals from Moscow on SBS here in Australia. Of course the whole of Europe already knows who the winner is but here in Australia we have to wait another 9 hours to see the final and I have to attempt to avoid all news of the show in that time so I don't spoil the surprise. There are a few stand out performances this year, I was surprised (in a good way) by Armenia and Portugal, but I was already a fan of Iceland, Finland, Greece, Denmark and the UK. I was disappointed that neither Switzerland or the Netherlands got through to the final, but I have learnt a long while ago that my favourites are not always everyone else's. Big thumbs up to Moscow, the stage is amazing, not so sure about the presenters, at least they have been entertaining!

Arrived back home in Melbourne. Tried the smart gates, but they weren't smart enough, as they couldn't deal with the fact that I was wearing glasses and had a beard. Then had to wait for my luggage, but wasn't sure which carousal it was going to come off. It eventually arrived, but in the mean time I had been cleared to proceed straight through customs. The airport was very quiet at that time and I thought about getting the Air Bus, but wasn't sure if there would be any taxis at the other end, so decided to get a taxi from the airport instead.

Arrived in Singapore and checked in for my Qantas flight to Melbourne and then went to the transit hotel. It was nice to be able to have a shower and I think that I got at least an hour's sleep before continuing on to Melbourne. The Qantas flight was busy and I had a full row and unfortunately next to me was a young child that would not sit still. Lucky for him, I was not remotely tied so I watched movies the whole way over and it was only a 7 hour flight. I prefer the food on Qantas to the food on KLM and especially the small things like ice creams and real drinking chocolate.

Graham gave me a lift to London Bridge train station so I didn't have to struggle with the underground to get there, although in the end it may have been quicker if I had taken the Tube. Got a quick train to Gatwick, with only one other stop on the way. Discovered that my flight with EasyJet left from the North Terminal so I had to take the monorail to the other terminal, which was surprisingly quiet. No problems checking in, although I was surprised to see that my bag's weight had increased to 19.5 kg, not sure what accounts for the additional 6 kg since I arrived. Still didn't have much of an appetite so just had something to drink and again it was a long walk to the departure gate. EasyJet don't allocate seating, but I was one of the first to check in so got on in one of the first groups, although I had a big group of “lads” sit in front of me; apart from being a bit loud, they were no problem. Found that I could check in as soon as I arrived in Amsterdam, so I...