Things we do in the dark

Yesterday was not a good day for me. I had to get up early for a special training day for our members. I got to the venue (Challenge Stadium) at 8am and nearly died when I saw the room. I was a small poky room on the second floor that overlooked the main swimming area on one side and basketball on the other side. The air con didn't work so there was a huge monstrosity of a portable one with two arms. It reminded me of the robot from the B & W TV show Lost in Space. It was also very loud but as soon as it was turned off the room became hot and stuffy.

The white board could only be used on one side and only the red pen worked (the black one was dead). This meant a trip back down the stairs (after Jacobs Ladder the night before) to get another one.


The Lapel mic decided to screech if it was under one of the speakers so the speaker himself had to side step in the small confined area that he had.


Once everyone arrived and the session started I sat down and suddenly realised that I hadn't even printed off the feedback sheets. I walked out of the room only to hear a girls school arriving full of giggling and squealing teenagers. It was hard to hear but I finally got J on the phone, told her my log on and where to find the forms. She phoned me back a few minutes later stating it wasn't there. I then did the mad phone around the states while she checked my inbox for the copy. Finally while I was talking to my counterpart in Melbourne, J found the forms and started printing them off. One of the sponsors was not interested in the speaker so he offered to go pick them up which was nice.


In the meantime the school had piled into the swimming area for their annual carnival. There must have been well over 500 girls in there. Think back to high school sports carnivals and how much you screamed then times that by 500. This could be heard in the room we were in. Even the siren to start the races was annoying. So while I was madly phoning people someone shut the door to the room. The door can only be opened from my side with a key. I was locked out!


I trudged back down the stairs to get someone to bring up a key. Luckily by the time I got back up the stairs someone was near the door and let me in. I then went and sat down knowing that all was going to be okay (touch plenty of wood). It was then that I looked down and this is where the title for today's blog comes in ... below is a photograph of what I saw on my feet!