Switch 2015

I'm back after this year's NSW Public libraries conference in Sydney. There were lots of great speakers and I am bursting with new ideas. The Australian Technology Park is a great venue, though quite expensive to get to (it costs $8 to get a return ticket from Central to Redfern - that's one stop!) and they had coffee carts with free coffee. Yes, I had three each day!

There is always a theme to the conference dinner, and while I was resistant initially, I managed to borrow an outfit and muster enough enthusiasm to fit in. This is the management team of the Riverina Regional Library and the director of Environment and Community Services at Wagga City Council!

The dinner was held at the Australian National Maritime Museum, which is a reasonably spectacular venue at Darling Harbour. There were fifteen of us from RRL, as we brought two councillors from Wagga City Council, librarians from Gundagai, Bland and Cootamundra and a director and councillor from Bland. We won best dressed team and received a bottle of wine as a prize - one sip each?

On our free evening, a few of us went to Grill'd for dinner and then went to see The Dressmaker. I read the book years ago, it's one of our book club books, and I think they have done a brilliant job. It's funny, sad and a bit dark, with gorgeous costumes and scenery. The only slightly jarring thing was that Kate Winslet, beautiful and looking much younger than her years, still looked significantly older than the two actors playing her contemporaries. Other than that, totally fabulous.

We drove home yesterday, through a heatwave. At one stage, the highway was closed just behind us because of a fire. It was perfect fire weather, boiling hot and blowing a gale. It's still windy but beautifully cool today, happy weekend!