on 2011

about me, reflection 2 Responses »
Jan 052012

There are lots of reflective bloggers around the place at the moment. After reading others’ reflections on 2011, I was inspired to stop, take stock, and do a bit of serious reflecting myself.

Recently, I was at a friend’s house with a number of other library-types for what is becoming an annual craft and catching up day. Someone asked about what had happened since we all met up the year before. My response was unequivocally negative: 2011 was a year I will be glad to put behind me. When I read a blog post by one of my fellow crafters in the days after our catch up, I was challenged by her philosophy that how we feel about things depends significantly on how we choose to handle them. I was instantly defensive. I *did* have a terrible 2011; it ‘happened to me’ and was not of my making!

But on further reflection, I can see that’s not entirely true. 2011 was a tough year for me personally, but professionally, it was an incredibly successful year. Some of that was down to chance and some of it was about hard work and making things happen. It was a challenging year professionally – and not always in a good way – but on the whole, a very positive year.

So why was my reaction to the question about what had happened in the last 12 months so negative? I guess my overall perception of 2011 is clouded by many things, not the least of which is the fact that I got sick again and again. And again. To the point where I’m sure my Twitter buddies and colleagues think I’m a hypochondriac! It started in January when I was in Sydney for Information Online and it just kept going through the year. A few colds later, I got quite sick again in June and lost my voice for a week; I left to go to the UK before I was completely better and got worse on the way up there; I got sick in Perth in September and took half the attendees of the 5th New Librarians’ Symposium out with me… Basically, I just got sick over and over and over, with some bouts worse than others. I estimate I had about 15 cold/flu things in 2011. And the year’s parting gift was a bout of sinusitis and tonsillitis that started on New Year’s Eve. I am most cranky about starting the new year sick, because 2012 is a year in which I plan to be well.

On a personal level, 2011 saw me adjusting to lots of change and more responsibility. I’m not going to go into all the details, but you can trust me when I say that there is just no positive way to approach some things! I’m not really a negative person. Though I do love a good whinge, when it comes to the crunch, I tend to just make stuff work. But making the best of a bad situation does not always mean you can turn it into a positive – and doing too much ‘making the best’ is really exhausting. Regardless of how I approached what the year threw at me, there was a lot of not-fun stuff to deal with, and much of it was completely outside my control. (And much of it was dealt with while I was sick. Doubly not fun.) Those things sucked. I tried to make them into positives where possible and dealt with the things that couldn’t be turned around.

And it’s those things I was reacting to when I said 2011 had been a crappy year for me.

But amongst all of that, there were many great things about 2011 that I’d essentially written off in my mind – or that I’d forgotten about amongst the not-fun stuff.

So what were those good things? I thought I’d blog about a few of the highlights, to keep myself honest and to document them for myself. Here are a few of the the brightest happenings of 2011:

  • In January I watched the social media storm following the Brisbane floods and generated a whole lot of nervous energy doing so, which I put to use by helping a public library in the Lockyer Valley clean up after flooding. My friend Gluten Free Lissy, her husband and sister and I headed out to a friend’s place near Laidley (she had flooded) and from there we went on to the library, spending a day crawling around, cleaning up gross mud, pulling up the carpet, and knocking nails into floorboards. I also baked a few hundred cakes and muffins to take to the SES at Laidley. This was a highlight of the year for me because it allowed me to see people at their most generous: while we were cleaning up the library, people stopped by with food for us – platters of fruit and things, a brick of water bottles – and other people, who had lost everything, pulled together and turned up at the library to help us clean up. It was also a devastating experience. Throughout the region, people had their whole lives packed up and put out on the curb for rubbish collection. And when I hopped in my car to head home, I heard a breaking news story about the death of a family in Grantham. What a crazy time we had at the start of this year. I hope to never witness anything like it again.
  • My divine niece and nephew grew from babies to amazing little people… My favourite milestone in the last year was their learning to sing. I love that they love to sing!
  • I worked on the Information Online conference committee, which was a fantastic opportunity to see how a big conference runs.
  • You know the saying ‘publish or perish’? Well, it definitely wasn’t lack of publishing that threatened my health in 2011 (more the bazillion colds I had!). I spoke around the place, personally presenting at five conferences and a couple of professional events (and co authored papers that others presented elsewhere); wrote a few conference papers; had a couple of articles published in inCite; gave my first keynote at the fifth New Librarians’ Symposium; and co-authored a conceptual article for the Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) journal. If you’re interested, you can see a list of my publications and most of my presentations on my other site, katedavis.info.
  • I went to the UK for a couple of weeks. While I’m not the world’s best traveler (I like my creature comforts and I’m a bit of a homebody! – and I was, of course, sick while I was away), I had a great time and appreciate the experiences I had while I was away.
  • I presented on behalf of Zaana Howard and myself at the Sixth International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference in Manchester, and we won both the Delegates’ Choice and International Program Committee Choice awards for best presentation.
  • While I was in the UK, I had an awesome few days catching up with old friends who would probably now be considered London-locals, so I got to have some insider exclusive experiences!
  • Shopping the Harrods sales in June would have to be a highlight of the year too. I bought my favourite pair of shoes ever (Jimmy Choo sandals that I live in – I should have bought more!) and stacks and stacks of kids’ clothes for my niece and nephew… Juicy Couture dresses, insanely cheap Polos, Dolce and Gabbana jeans, Armani tshirts… And most importantly, Fireman Sam paraphernalia that has given my nephew hours of firefighting pleasure… I had to buy a suitcase early in my trip to accommodate my shopping (which I’ve already blogged about here)!
  • I collaborated with the aforementioned Zaana Howard on a couple of projects, and working with Zaana was definitely a highlight for me. As was working collaboratively with my fabulous colleagues, including Helen Partridge, Katherine Howard and Christine Yates on various different things.
  • In addition to London, Aberdeen and Manchester, I also traveled locally, to Sydney, Canberra and Perth. In Canberra, I saw one of my lovely friends get married in the rose gardens at Old Parliament House in autumn, which is my absolute favourite time of year in Canberra… When I returned later in the year, I got to catch up with my lovely friend and her new husband.
  • In April I submitted my Stage 2 research proposal for my PhD and had it approved. First milestone done and dusted!
  • I collected data for my PhD pilot project and was reminded of why this topic is right for me.
  • By the time I went on my Christmas holidays, I had a solid first draft of my methods chapter for my PhD Confirmation of Candidature. We won’t talk about the literature review I’m yet to write a single word of…
  • I worked with amazing students on projects and course work. I had numerous goosebump moments when I saw my students realise their potential. And I got to cheer a number of them on as they crossed the stage at graduation.
  • I got to give several of my awesome students references for jobs. This is one of my very favourite parts of teaching.
  • I co-chaired the very successful RAILS7 conference in May.
  • I worked with a project student to produce a series of YouTube clips to support National and State Libraries Australasia’s LibraryHack initiative, which involved speaking to a bunch of awesome people.
  • I wrapped up a collaborative faculty funded teaching and learning project that was designed to develop a framework for blended learning across a whole of course environment. Well, that’s kind of true. I wrapped up the work we were funded to do (and then some) but the research and its application is ongoing – I’m currently working with a project student to survey our students about how our breed of blended experiences works for them.
  • I got back to reading fiction! I started the year with an aim of reading the equivalent of a fiction book a week. In the end, I made it to 35, which – considering the year I had! – was no mean feat. I read some fantastic books, particularly young adult novels.
  • I did some fun stuff with my teaching, like gamify my unit site for our gamification week and present on my use of social media in teaching and learning at a QUT innovation event.
  • I worked with Dr Gill Hallam who delivered one of the units I teach to a cohort of German students studying in Stuttgart. My students were finishing the unit as Gill’s started and they mentored their German peers as they undertook the unit. Half a dozen students, Gill and I coauthored a conference paper on our collaborations, and we’re currently preparing the presentation which will be delivered in Amsterdam at the BOBCATSSS 2012 conference at the end of January.
  • I won the Faculty of Science and Technology Teaching Excellence Award (individual). Working on the application for this award was a highlight in itself because I got to revisit all the lovely emails students have sent me and student feedback on the teaching and learning experience survey. Winning the award was an added perk – and not one I expected!
  • I also received a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Performance – another lovely surprise!
  • I had a fantastic Christmas with my family. It was a casual, lovely day. We opened presents, played with new toys, ate a lunch that should of been lovely (except I was too busy supervising present opening and burned it to cinders!), jumped on the trampoline that Santa brought… It was a great day and a perfect end to the year.

So that’s a big long list of highlights, and there were quite a few more lovely little things that happened, too. And I’m grateful for every one.

A friend of mine posted on Facebook about one thing she was grateful for every day in 2011. It was refreshing and inspiring to read these reflections during the year. Those statements of gratitude and my own reflections on the last year were what made me want to write this post.

Despite still being glad to see the back of 2011, I am grateful for all the challenges and the triumphs. No, I’m not grateful for all the sickness – but I am grateful for the renewed, proactive focus on my health that this has prompted. Am I grateful for some of the challenges in my personal life? No, not really, but I am grateful for being stretched and for having opportunities to grow. I’m grateful to be part of a quirky but amazing little family and willing to work with whatever that brings. And I am decidedly grateful for all the wonderful things that happened in 2011.

Most of all I’m grateful for my amazing supportive friends, fantastic colleagues, and my beautiful family. Both new friends and old, those who are far away and those who are around the corner, have been so important in the last year – more so than ever before. Some have saved my sanity by talking me off the PhD ledge (that’s the ledge of panic and doom where you think you just can’t do it); some have looked after me like surrogate mothers; and others have put up with me being a distant, always preoccupied and constantly unavailable friend with no complaint, amazing patience and an understanding of where I’m at. You all know who you are, and I am grateful for you.

I’m grateful for 2011, but yes, I’m still grateful that it came to an end.

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my #nls5 and #libcampoz take away messages

misc 6 Responses »
Sep 222011

I’ve just gotten back into the swing of things after the Fifth New Librarians’ Symposium and Library Camp Australia in Perth this past weekend. I’ve come away with a few key messages in my mind, and wanted to share some of these. I should warn you, this post was written on the train yesterday morning at 6am after catching the red eye out of Perth the night before, so expect a degree of incoherency!

Authenticity is key

The most important thing any presenter takes onto the stage with them is their very own style. Tips about how fast to talk, how you should move, and how you shouldn’t say ummmm are all well and good, but the people you’re presenting to are there to see you, not some formulaic presentation. It’s about being yourself and being authentic. It’s okay that I don’t have the energy of Kathryn Greenhill or the quick wit and unconventional style of Mal Booth. It’s okay if I say umm a bit and, if I want to swear for emphasis and I think my audience can handle it, that’s okay too. NLS5 marked my first ever keynote and boy was I packing it heading up onto that stage following in Mal Booth’s wake. But the inimitable Ms Greenhill told me good presenting is about being authentically ‘you’. I didn’t believe her. Until I watched others enact their authentic selves on the stage. That was a big learning for me.

It’s time to step up

At both NLS5 and Library Camp Australia I heard too many people say that depite encouragement and offers of financial support for attendance, they could not inspire their new graduates to get to these events. Some just weren’t interested; others didn’t want to sacrifice their weekend (even if offered time off in lieu). This makes me want to tear my hair out. And it makes me want to shout out two words: Step. Up. New grads, step up and get engaged. Take charge of your careers and make the most of opportunities that are being handed to you on a plate while many of your peers are fighting for those same opportunities (or making those opportunities for themselves by self funding conference registration and a none-too-cheap trip to Perth, taking annual leave, and stepping off a long flight from Perth after an exhausting weekend to get straight back into the work the very next day. To library educators (and I’m talking to myself here, too): step up and inspire your students. Send them out into the profession so supercharged and energetic and hungry for more learning that they’ll do whatever it takes to look after their PD, and they’d never dream of turning down an opportunity to go to something like the New Librarians’ Symposium.

Balance is on everyone’s minds

Kids or no kids; casual job or mega management role; librarian or not… Many of us are struggling to find balance in our lives. For some of us, that’s because we put too much pressure on ourselves to achieve – and to achieve perfection. For others, it’s simply a matter of the sheer volume of ‘stuff’ in our lives. I am a firm believer that we can have it all, but not all at the same time. For many of us, this weekend made us stop and think about the pace at which we’re living our lives, and in many cases, we discovered it was passing us by in a blur. There are two simple things we can do to make our lives a little less frantic.

Firstly, we can stop measuring our own worth against the successes of others. This is sheer craziness on so many levels. You’re not that other person! You have different skills and knowledge and aspirations and contexts. You are also not privy to the inner workings of these other people’s lives. You may just find you’re aspiring to be like someone whose personal life is a shambles or who hates the fact they have to work a million hours a day or who has made sacrifices you aren’t willing to make. You’re you. Find your own dream, your own picture of balance, and live it.

Secondly, you can make small changes to begin to redress the balance. In October, you’ll find a bunch of librarians doing #lunchtober, where we will take a lunch break every day. If you’re like me and fortunate enough to work from home, some days you might even do #naptober, where instead of taking a break to eat, you take a break to have a nap. It’s about being mindful – remembering to stop and chill a bit during our busy days.

I’m not Wonder Woman

I realised I have limits and I need to be mindful of them. Traveling is tiring and when you’re sick to boot, tweetups and post dinner drinks aren’t the best ways to spend your time. This conference, I learned it’s okay to admit defeat and head home early, even when the cool kids are carrying on. I also learned it’s okay to skip a session, sit in a corner, and catch up with friends old and new.

Research rocks

I may be a geek for loving research and data and evaluation, but I am by no means alone, even amongst the crowd of newly minted librarians.

Our students are full of win

All three QUT students at Library Camp Australia put themselves out there by proposing topics for discussion; two of them facilitated sessions; and one of them championed a relational view of information literacy, encouraging participants to step back from breaking literacies down into categories, and to consider literacy from an experiential view point. Boy was I proud. At NLS5, Alisa Howlett did a fantastic job of her paper on developing personal learning networks and I was proud as punch. Way to represent, guys!

Sometimes the people you connect with online are even more awesome IRL

I learned that a PLN is even better after you get to connect the Twitter handles and avatars with a real person.

Moving forward

I’ve also come away with a few challenges:

  • to get the #ccvid4lib project off the ground with the help of the awesome people I met at Library Camp Oz (a post on this is coming soon)
  • to help the local New Grads Group get an NLS reprise event off the ground to catch up all the local new graduates and students who didn’t make it to Perth
  • to help get a Library Camp Brisbane off the ground, now we’ve seen how the pros do it

Not so new anymore…

I’ve been to three NLS’s now and this will probably be my last. This one had a different vibe than the others. It was upbeat. People were positive about the future of our profession, and willing to get involved in shaping it. It was a pleasure to be there and a privilege to give a keynote. Thanks to the committee for putting on a fab NLS, and for asking me along to speak, and thanks also to the Library Camp unorganisers for a fabulous day of informal learning.

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presentation from the fifth new librarians' symposium

conference presentations 1 Response »
Sep 212011

This past weekend, I gave a keynote at the New Librarians’ Symposium in Perth. My presentation was on practitioner research, evidence based practice, and the importance of theory for information professionals.

I took my Wizard of Oz themed title (Research and evidence and theory – oh my! Paving your own yellow brick road) a little too far, and the result is a rather cryptic set of slides. I believe the presentation was audio recorded, though, so I’ll post when it becomes available. Slides are below, and you can see all the images I used (and then some) by visiting my favourites on Flickr.

View more presentations from katiedavis
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interested in helping to compile creative commons licensed videos on technologies and tools for libraries?

misc 8 Responses »
Sep 052011

In recent weeks, I’ve been lamenting the fact I can no longer link to CommonCraft videos on YouTube. The CommonCraft videos have been a great resource for both educators and librarians. The fact I can’t link out to these videos anymore means I have to create even more content myself (and I already create stacks of content!).

So I was thinking, what if we got a bunch of people who are interested in emerging technologies together and started creating our own videos, with a particular emphasis on the application of the technologies for library and information services? Rather than covering concepts in a generalised way like CommonCraft videos do, I’d like to see these videos take a quick look at how a specific tool or technology can be deployed by libraries or librarians.

I’m envisioning videos that are three to five minutes in length and which are essentially “quick and dirty”. Technology changes so fast it is simply not worth investing a great deal of time in creating them. The videos would be Creative Commons licensed (I’m thinking Attribution only) and loaded somewhere like YouTube for anyone to view or redeploy in any way they choose. We could do an initial push to create a first set of five to ten videos, and then aim to release one a month, or perhaps just as the arrival of something new demands it.

The videos could be used by librarians and library technologists to explain concepts to management; in technology training programs; in “23 things” style learning programs; by educators… The possibilities are endless.

If you’d be interested in participating by creating a video, drop a comment here to say what you’d like to do and we’ll go from there. If you’d like to be part of an admin team to get this thing off the ground, likewise leave a comment here and we can set up a time to Skype and talk through the logisitics. I’d like this to be a lightweight project that, with minimal effort from all of us, could benefit many people. I know many of us are already developing content about technology topics, so why not pool our resources and create something we can all draw from?

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information literacy and transliteracy... how do they relate?

information literacy No Responses »
Aug 082011

*Half-baked stream-of-consciousness alert!*

I just had a quick read of a blog post over at the Libraries and Transliteracy blog, which looked at how information literacy (IL) and transliteracy might relate to each other.

This is a “think as I write post” – I’m really writing this to think through my thoughts on this topic. So be gentle with me! Here goes.

I’m not sure why this connection hasn’t happened in my brain before, but it struck me that the view of IL in the post mentioned above is very much a skills based view, rather than a relational view, where we look at how people use information to learn. And it made me think, from a relational, experiential viewpoint, I can indeed see how transliteracy would be subsumed by IL. Through a relational lens, we consider information to be much more than textual content and we consider it to be experienced via multiple channels (including technological channels like social media).

Because I subscribe to an experiential view of IL, for me, transliteracy borders on being a redundant concept. Or perhaps more to the point, I wonder why practitioners in library and information science have looked outside our discipline for an explanation of this phenomenon (what others call transliteracy, but whatever you want to call it) when one already exists in our own literature. This phenomenon that some call transliteracy is (for me at least) encompassed by IL – maybe not as IL is discussed in practitioner discourse, where the focus is on skills for seeking and using information, but most certainly in the IL discourse that I position myself within, where we look at how people use information to learn, how people experience information.

There is an increasing interest in information studies research in how people experience information in social media. My PhD is just one example of a study concerned with this phenomenon. I’m excited about the research my colleagues have underway, looking at, for example, information experience in Twitter, and information experience in social media in a time of natural disaster. As publications begin to appear in this area, the discussion about how IL and transliteracy relate is bound to get a whole lot more interesting.

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an apple a day... get well this august!

augustwellness 3 Responses »
Jul 312011

Another monthly challenge… but this time, one that’s totally good for you!

Along with a few of the people I hang around the interwebs, during August, I’ll be doing one positive thing for my wellness every day. We’re calling it the #augustwellness challenge, and you’re invited to play along.

When we say ‘wellness’, we mean ‘whole person wellness’ – mind, body, soul. It’s not about running 10km every morning; it’s about doing simple things that will impact on your overall wellness.

They don’t have to be big things. For example, I struggle to find time to cook dinner, so a positive thing I might do one day is actually cook dinner – and that simple thing is positive on so many levels… because it means I’m eating a proper meal; because it means I need to stop working at a reasonable hour; because it means I get to spend time doing something I love.

So play along, and document your daily achievement by tweeting about it with the hashtag #augustwellness. If you’re participating in #dailyimage2011 or #2011PAD, you might like to post a photo to Flickr to document each thing (I’ve created an #augustwellness group for you to add your image to) – but make sure you tweet it, too, for those who aren’t playing along with your image-taking challenge.

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redesigning evidence based practice for wicked problem solving

conference presentations, ebl, evidence No Responses »
Jul 052011

I spent the better part of last week at the Sixth International Evidence Based Library and Information Practice Conference (EBLIP6) in Manchester, where I presented a paper co-authored with the wonderful Zaana Howard. Our paper was a conceptual one – it presented an untested model for evidence based practice (EBP), which is essentially a hybrid of design thinking and EBP models. This paper was born out of a discussion (or several discussions really) that Zaana and I had about the instances where EBP doesn’t cut it as a model for dealing with a problem – for example, situations where there is no existing literature, or situations that require innovation. We also had some doubts about particular aspects of the EBP model, including its reliance on published literature.

This presentation was a lot of fun to work on, not the least because it gave me an opportunity to get more familiar with Zaana’s field of design thinking, which I think has a lot to offer information practitioners. As always, it was a pleasure to work with Zaana, too!

Our presentation was well received – we got interesting questions during the session, and were pleasantly surprised to win both the delegates’ choice and committee’s choice best paper awards for the conference.

You can see our slides and references over at my other site, katedavis.info. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the hybrid model, too – we plan to write this up as an article, so all feedback is very welcome. You can either leave comments here or email us (davis.kate@gmail.com – I’ll forward feedback to Zaana).

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day 3: zen traveler fail

blogeverydayofjune 4 Responses »
Jun 212011

So I was inspired by some hardcore zen travelers like Fiona, Kathryn and Con to travel with only hand luggage. And much to my amazement, I actually managed to condense my stuff right down and fit it all into a cabin-sized wheelie. Yay me!

Alas, when I checked in at Sydney airport, the very clever ground staff weighed my bag and declared it too heavy to carry on. After all my hard work to reduce my stuff – only one pair of jeans and two pairs of shoes in that bag, people! And no GHDs! – I ended up having to check my bag in.

big gaudy suitcase

my new gaudy suitcase. see the sunlight in this pic? it was taken at 8.30pm!

After one afternoon of shopping in London (with my shopping haul now waiting for me at a friend’s place) and one internal flight with an overflowing hand bag that weighed a tonne, I have succumbed and bought myself a repulsively gaudy, enormous suitcase. All for the bargain price of 45 quid! (Reduced from 150!) So I’ll be sticking my carry on in there for the rest of the trip, leaving me plenty of room for shopping. And best of all, I no longer have to stress about fitting everything back in the way it was originally. That’s the problem with outsourcing your packing: it never goes back in the way it came out.

I admit defeat: I, Kate Davis, am far too much of a princess to travel with carry on only.

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day 2: luton is NOT london

blogeverydayofjune 6 Responses »
Jun 202011

Dear self. Next time you decide to fly anywhere out of London, thou shalt not fly on easyJet and thou shalt definitely not fly out of Luton. Kthxbai.

No seriously, have you ever been to Luton airport? It’s an absolute debacle to get to (so I forked out 63 quid for a taxi) and a debacle to get around. And seriously, if you thought flying on Virgin or Jetstar was uncomfortable, give easyJet a bash. Thank goodness Luton to Aberdeen by plane is a shorter trip than London to Luton by car. After a 4am wakeup (thanks screwy body clock!) I was pretty ready to get to Aberdeen and chill out.

I arrived in Aberdeen at about lunch time yesterday – the i3 Information Interactions Impact conference starts this afternoon (Monday). I picked up the keys for my student accommodation, realised there was no TV in the room (I have a thing about silent hotel rooms – I really need the TV on for company) and promptly headed straight into the city to grab some lunch and some DVDs to keep me company. I had a pub lunch and did a bit of shopping – picking up a pair of Vans because my feet are killing from wearing boots all the time, and season one of Glee on DVD – and pottered around to check out the sites of Aberdeen.

This is a beautiful city. But it’s kind of kooky too: rolling hills, full on ye olde town, and seagulls squawking everywhere! I really, really like it here though – cell-like student accommodation and all! Every one I talk to is super nice and it’s a really picturesque little town. After less than a day here, I know where all the important stuff is – the high street for shopping, Boots for all my pharmacy needs (essential knowledge for travelling with a chest infection), Sainsbury’s for bottled water and snacks, Starbucks for wifi and breakfast, Debenham’s to buy a bigger suitcase (yes, already)…

On returning to my room after dinner last night, I bumped into some other people who are here from the conference. They had a help sheet for the cabled internet in the rooms (didn’t even know there was any!) so I managed to get myself set up and connected. Having internet access makes such a difference. I’ve travelled on my own before and I feel a lot less isolated this time because wifi is ubiquitous. It’s nice to be able to log on to Twitter and say hi to my friends at home, and I’m managing to get a lot of work done using hot spots. This is awesome because it means I’m not going to return to a flooded inbox at the end of my trip. It’s also good because I never have this amount of free time at home, so I’m able to get things done that I wouldn’t at home.

Speaking of which… Better get back to work.

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day 1: london

blogeverydayofjune 2 Responses »
Jun 202011

I’m counting Saturday as my first full day of being away… Thursday was, of course, full of traveling, and Friday saw me exhausted after being awake for 40 hours with only about three hours of napping in between, and pretty emotional to boot. I coughed and sneezed the entire way from Brisbane to Sydney to Bangkok to London. Delightful. I had a nap when I got in on Friday and then met up with one of oldest friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant at Earls Court.

Speaking of Earls Court: I stayed at the easyHotel there (linked to easyJet). I was expecting small and economy style, but man was it small and economy style! If you had to imagine what a bathroom on a plane would look like if it had a shower in it, you’d imagine an easyHotel bathroom. The bathroom is a wet room – so no powerpoints in there for hair drying (queue bad hair days) and not enough room to turn around when in the shower. But the water was piping hot and the pressure good; it was really clean; and an awesome location. When I first got in I had a “oh my God what have I done” moment – it was freezing in the room and the bathroom was not so amusing to just-got-off-the-plane-and-dying-for-a-shower-Kate. There was also lots of road noise and I was in dire need of a nap. However, post shower and nap (which turned out to be quality despite the road noise), everything looked a bit shinier and it turned out to be a perfect place to stay.

Anyway, back to Saturday… I spent the first few hours of the morning working at Starbucks, where I had a decent coffee! Yes, at Starbucks! I was a bit stiff and sore after the flight so I got a massage, which was without a doubt the best one I’ve ever had, then headed off to London Bridge to meet my friend. We went to the Borough Markets, where we bought awesome chicken wraps and a bottle of prosseco. Then we found a spot out of the rain – on the side of the road at the base of a pylon! – and sat and ate and drank and caught up.

We spent the afternoon shopping, and I ended up with quite a haul for my nephew – clothes from the department store sales and Special Agent Oso merchandise from the awesome Disney store. We got served by an Aussie in a quintessentially British pub, downed a bottle of wine, and then headed off for awesome Thai for dinner. It was pretty much the perfect Saturday.

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