I’m writing these a bit asynchronously, but hopefully I covered the leg thing when talking about leaving Bournemouth. Short version is that walking was painful but got better over time, and that I was hoping it was a dehydration/exertion thing, because the symptoms were worryingly close to The Great L5S1 Rupture Of 2015.
Slept well, didn’t wake up in the night with massive leg cramps, and while walking was still painful, I could at least walk somewhat normally. Well, normally for me, given the litany of injuries over the years.
Accidentally met a colleague on the way to hotel breakfast, so it was nice to chat. CB & I don’t work together, and our jobs in no way interact, so it’s fun seeing what things look like from a different perspective.
I’m sure I could have found the venue, but ended up accidentally following a management group, so chatted with various of them on the way there. Turns out the former CTO worked on the same thing I work on, 2+ generations of products ago.
I was issued with my purple stewarding polo shirt, and I have not included a picture of me in it. You’re welcome. Things went well on the crowd control front all the way through the opening plenary (“the stairs to the third floor plenary are to your right” × 1,000,000) , and then they fell off and exploded at the first session on the floor I was assigned to.
Two entry doors we could cover, but there was a bonus set of stairs, and the room filled so fast & so much that the conference centre facilities people declared it a hazard & forced people out. In an exciting period of rapid crowd management skills acquisition, we (there were a few stewards) blocked off all but one door to entry & herded everyone that way so that we could keep the numbers under control. Folks were mostly understanding of my Purple Gandalf “You Shall Not Pass because we need people to use the other door as a crowd safety measure” routine, though I did occasionally have to do the arms spread wide “I Am A Barrier” bit to make people stop and listen.
Some lessons to be learned there, and it identified a need for a way to tell all of the other rooms when a space is full, so that they can tell people not to bother heading in that direction.
My best moment was when someone jokingly tried to bribe his way in with a pair of Ordnance Survey Socks. After regretfully saying no, but complimenting him on an awesome swag item, he gave me a pair. 😁
We had a team dinner afterwards, which was a nice reward/comedown from the madness of the conference. It went late-ish, but didn’t turn into the sort of bar crawl where you get in at 2am, unlike some previous years. 2018, I am looking in your direction.
Next day was a team meeting. Breakfast this time featured one of those “hey, can I join my friends over there?” exercises which I suspect the staff hate, as the group expanded across multiple 2-seater tables when people arrived or noticed the growing cluster.
My leg was almost completely better by this point; Some twinges & soreness, but that’s it.
My hearing after a full day in the conference centre in a corridor and lift lobby? Yeah, I could hear what was happening close to me; The rest was just muffled noises & ringing.
Not a lot to say about the team meeting, partially because of commercial sensitivity, and partially because it’s probably a bit dull. It was livened up by one team member being spectacularly unwell & attending remotely, and for a while I was acting as the JonathanBot, pointing my laptop camera at whoever was talking.
In hindsight, I had my folding phone tripod in my bag, so we could have had someone with MS Teams on their phone call him & use the phone as a much more portable camera.
Not nearly as funny though.
The trip out of London was very simple & easy. Wandered the short distance to Waterloo ( the leg was almost completely better by this point ), hung around for a bit, then tried not to fall asleep too much on the way to Salisbury. I needn’t have worried; They stopped the train there and made all onward passengers change.
Found the place without issue, and it’s quite nice. Got a bedroom, a nice wee lounge, and a kitchen. It’ll do nicely for a few days.