Last call
So today was the last day of Train the Trainer week, and tonight is the last night I'll be at the Richards' home in Eltham. We spent the day at QSR, being marketed to, and lectured at for too much of it, I think. One good thing, though, was that the trainers were all comfortable with each other, having now been around one another for the better part of a week. So we were able to laugh and joke with everybody, and give Fiona a hard time (the computer she was demo-ing on wasn't working) without feeling all uptight about it. We learned a very very little bit about NVivo 3, which they think will be released in early 2006. They are going through a radically different release process than with previous softwares, and I hope to be able to be involved in that. Those of you who know me and have an interest in the whole NVivo thing, ask me about this, should I somehow neglect to tell you. (Ha - bloody unlikely.)
The most exciting that happened at QSR was Lyn introducing me to Sam, the NVivo software developer. So I drowned him in VIA, and he asked how long the project would be going. I said I expected to be involved at least another 5-10 years. He said that NVivo development wasn't necessarily going down the route we seemed to need, but if he could spend some of his spare time on it to "give you something to play with", would it be okay if he took three months? I readily agreed. I'm pretty sure this is going to go nowhere, but at least the idea is in his head. I gave him my card. Hopefully, he'll be in touch.
And talk about geeky - we took a group photo today of all the trainers. And how did he arrange ourselves? Into a tree node structure based on hemisphere and country of origin. Yeah. Explain THAT to someone normal!!
In other news, I've picked up a bit of a British twang. I was explaining to Chris today how I was noticing that I've adopted British pronounciation, but Australian cadence, the former because of her, and the latter because everyone else I talk to is Australian! She laughed and said that she thinks she's sounding more American these days because of me!
We walked to a nearby mall today immediately after our sessions concluded and went to a TGI Fridays to get a drink. A pint and a half later, I was realizing maybe we should have also had an appetizer, since I was dizzy when I stood up! We walked back to the hotel (about a half an hour walk) and had dinner. Again, Chris paid, which was tremendously nice of her. Of course, we also had shared a bottle of wine, and all of that suddenly hit me at the end of the meal, so I was feeling pretty ill for the last half hour we could have been productively talking. Yet again, we were having a deep and bonding conversation after having talked for several hours about QSR, work, NVivo, software training, qual methods, etc. I'm so glad we get along and crack each other up - we seem to have very similar views on a whole range of things.
She waited with me for my cab, and we hugged goodbye. I'm glad I'll see her in Brisbane. She's spending the weekend with family in Moe, while I am hosted by Barb and Peter. She has been such a tremendous bonus to my trip here. I had thought I would essentially be on my own the entire time. Instead, I've felt like I have a travel companion. It's been really great, but it will make my week on my own in New Zealand even more noticeably solo.
Uh oh. Tom just brought me a glass of wine. It's 11:30 PM, and I'm having another glass of wine. Unfortunately, it's the best wine I've had here so far. A rose. I'll have to figure out what it is. The red wine has been flowing like water; this is a nice change.
Lyn and Tom are having arguments tonight, too, while I'm down here, and over me, in some cases, much to my amusement and Tom's consternation. :) Okay. I'm going to post this, and some photos, and then go to bed. I'm not sure what my web access will be like from here on in (per usual), but I'll see what I can do. It's easier to post text than photos because I don't have to be on my own computer to do it!
The most exciting that happened at QSR was Lyn introducing me to Sam, the NVivo software developer. So I drowned him in VIA, and he asked how long the project would be going. I said I expected to be involved at least another 5-10 years. He said that NVivo development wasn't necessarily going down the route we seemed to need, but if he could spend some of his spare time on it to "give you something to play with", would it be okay if he took three months? I readily agreed. I'm pretty sure this is going to go nowhere, but at least the idea is in his head. I gave him my card. Hopefully, he'll be in touch.
And talk about geeky - we took a group photo today of all the trainers. And how did he arrange ourselves? Into a tree node structure based on hemisphere and country of origin. Yeah. Explain THAT to someone normal!!
In other news, I've picked up a bit of a British twang. I was explaining to Chris today how I was noticing that I've adopted British pronounciation, but Australian cadence, the former because of her, and the latter because everyone else I talk to is Australian! She laughed and said that she thinks she's sounding more American these days because of me!
We walked to a nearby mall today immediately after our sessions concluded and went to a TGI Fridays to get a drink. A pint and a half later, I was realizing maybe we should have also had an appetizer, since I was dizzy when I stood up! We walked back to the hotel (about a half an hour walk) and had dinner. Again, Chris paid, which was tremendously nice of her. Of course, we also had shared a bottle of wine, and all of that suddenly hit me at the end of the meal, so I was feeling pretty ill for the last half hour we could have been productively talking. Yet again, we were having a deep and bonding conversation after having talked for several hours about QSR, work, NVivo, software training, qual methods, etc. I'm so glad we get along and crack each other up - we seem to have very similar views on a whole range of things.
She waited with me for my cab, and we hugged goodbye. I'm glad I'll see her in Brisbane. She's spending the weekend with family in Moe, while I am hosted by Barb and Peter. She has been such a tremendous bonus to my trip here. I had thought I would essentially be on my own the entire time. Instead, I've felt like I have a travel companion. It's been really great, but it will make my week on my own in New Zealand even more noticeably solo.
Uh oh. Tom just brought me a glass of wine. It's 11:30 PM, and I'm having another glass of wine. Unfortunately, it's the best wine I've had here so far. A rose. I'll have to figure out what it is. The red wine has been flowing like water; this is a nice change.
Lyn and Tom are having arguments tonight, too, while I'm down here, and over me, in some cases, much to my amusement and Tom's consternation. :) Okay. I'm going to post this, and some photos, and then go to bed. I'm not sure what my web access will be like from here on in (per usual), but I'll see what I can do. It's easier to post text than photos because I don't have to be on my own computer to do it!
posted by Jen at 11:02 PM
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