cc licensed ( BY ND ) flickr photo shared by James Jordan
My best plans are accidental. Dripping with serendipity. And this is happening again first week of December.
It was with boundless excitement on visiting Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach I found myself on offer of a trip to Melbourne to do a keynote for her Powerful Learning Practice culminating event for their project there.
That is one day I am down for, November 29… but while planning travel, it only made sense to take in more than Melbourne, so I opted for a 2 week stay. While I visited every capitol city in my 2007 whirlwind trip I hardly saw anything beyond airports and hotels (plus I got sick my first weekend on the ground). So I wanted to see some more out of the cities.
So the plan first is a few days of road tripping with my colleague Jan Whitaker, who I knew from Maricopa in the late 1980s and I had visited in 2000 (she moved there after doing a sabbatical), She has offered a driving trip to see the Great Ocean Road. I will then return to Melbourne and get to hang out with my ds106 co-conspirator, Rowan Peter.
It was a challenge to not over plan the time there, and while I know people in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, I opted for Tasmania- which I only saw so briefly in 2007. I wanted to visit Jo Murray again, and a colleague I got to know through NMC, Angela Thomas, who has gotten a teaching position at the University of Tasmania.
So that would be the second leg, a week in Tasmania.
I’d let the details fill in once I booked a round trip to Hobart from Melbourne.
But then… I found out from Frankie, my contact who would be hosting me in Hobart, that Nancy White would be in Hobart the same time. Awesome! There is nothing more fun than hanging out with Nancy.
As they say on those Ronco commercials… But wait, there’s more! Now I found out at the same time I am in Hobart, they are hosting the ASCILITE11 conference is going on the same week! Now I will get to meet up with friends Mark Northover, Stephen Harlow, Brad beach, and likely Richard Elliot, and more.
What an awesome convergence, I could not have planned it better.
cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by M J M
Amen! I just shout AMEN! Kismet. Improv. Magic.
Normally, I’d say it’s smart to focus two weeks in two regions, based on my single 5-week trip there – Great Ocean Road is a classic. It leaves more to explore if and when I get back there. However, your recent classic road trip covered huge ground while providing near-daily treasures. enjoy the convergence.