Bathurst and Ausakai

Bathurst, the venue for Ausakai09 deserves a mention.

Originally, given its association with beef rearing, Mount Panorama and motor racing I'd tended to assume that it was, heaving with men with shaven heads and straggly beards, utes, and to misquote that Victoria Bitter ad, brought to you by the men who've had their hand up a cow's bum.

And while it's true it was a little bit country, it was a perfectly pleasant little town with some decent restauarants and pubs, and some nice looking streets of Federation and art deco houses. Definitely not the last place on earth you'd stop - probably the presence of Charles Sturt helps keep things a bit more snazzy.

The conference itself was held a typical university conference venue with the same fairly soulless conference accomadation. If it wasn't for the screeching cockatoos it could have been Birmingham, Warwick, Nijmegen, Stanford or any of a half dozen other places I've been to conferences at.

In fact the only downside was wireless access. This was severly overloaded and went through a portal that seemed to be a bit snotty about talking to the ookygoo. Definitely a downside, and the first time I've felt the need for a 3G phone and a data contract to allow me to check my email ...