Cardiovascular Perfusion

I'm thinking seriously of finishing off my MBA (yes that one) and maybe (maybe) switching to Swinburne to do it.

As i couldn't make it to the postgrad afternoon @ Swinny they've notified me of their Speak to a Swinburne academic staff member through our Postgrad Online Discussion Board which I would like to take advantage of (only I'm away for much of it).

However there are some interesting chat subjects eg. cardiovascular perfusion (which is on immediately after the MBA discussion), aviation (human factors), both of which I'm away for , but I am back in time for Cardiac Technology.

Perhaps I'll just make an appointment to speak to someone in the MBA department.

*The Cardiovascular Perfusionist operates extracorporeal circulation equipment during any medical procedure in which it is necessary to artificially support or temporarily replace a patient's circulatory or respiratory functions, such as in open heart surgery or other heart procedures. Perfusionists routinely administer various types of blood products, medications and control the temperature of patients during surgery.

Hooray, hooray, it's a holi holi day*

Well I am now o'fisherly on holidays.

Although looking at the list of things I have to do before I fly - eeek.

One of the most important (if not the most important) is get a suitcase.

TB & I went shopping on the weekend for holiday stuff. May I say we will look a treat in our matching jackets & shoes!

When we went to Europe a couple of years ago we regressed about 30 years to when our mother used to dress us in matching outfits (but different colours).

Almost all the europe photos of us in 2006 have us in matching outfits (but different colours).

NZ though - a different story. We both have powder blue polar fleeces (with black trim).

Really one of us could stay home and the other could take double exposure photos in NZ and it would still look like we were both there. (embarassing but true)

But hey, when you can pick up a brand name fleece for $10 and the only choice is powder blue then Bobbsey Twins R us is the only way to go!

I've made a stand tho - we will not have matching suitcases this trip -TB has bought a new suitcase and I haven't (yet) and I will not buy the same brand or colour suitcase as her. (This I vow.)

I've also discovered (at the third attempt) that November + overseas + career = do not mix

Maths is so not my strong point.

Anyway back to ignoring the list of things to do.

*(Oh G** bad Boney M flashback)

B'Zealand

TappingBetty & I are off to New Zealand soon (or B'Zealand as the feral cherub calls it).

I booked the airfares back in early March, when November seemed such a long way away.

A couple of weeks ago TB & I decided we probably needed more of a plan than 'fly to Auckland, then fly back to Melbourne a couple of weeks later'.

So I raided the library shelves for NZ travel guides, interrogated my K1W1 sister-in-law, and we started planning.

Things we discovered about NZ whilst researching out trip.

1. We are in Auckland at the same time as a bunch of librarians going to a conference

2. We are in Auckland at the same time as Michael Connelly (one of my favourite authors)

3. We are in Auckland & Queenstown at the same time as the gardens tour being led by our gardener cousin

4. Dunedin has a Cadbury World

5. The Overlander only runs on Fridays & Saturdays

6. Neither of us can remember where Essie Summers' books are set

7. We are in Auckland at the same time as Anthony Warlow

8. Neither of us wish to go bungy jumping

9. We are not planning to hire a car

10. We will need a holiday to recover from all the NZ things we are planning to do, see, & experience

Basically we are trying to cram 4 weeks of sightseeing into a little over 2 weeks

Nuff said really.

If they book why won't they attend?

We had an author event at my library last night.

Thirty-one (31) people were booked in.

Thirteen (13) showed up. That's right less than 50% of those who had gone to the trouble of booking actually showed up.

Even for my branch this is very disappointing statistic.

At my last author event 37 out of 55 showed up - which as a tad disappointing as we were telling people it was booked out (room capacity = 50)

Whilst last night was a higher no show rate (% wise) - it shows a general trend - the no show rate at my branch is significantly higher than at the other branches.

So my questions to you are:

1. What are we doing wrong?
2. How can we improve our booking to audience ratio?

I should add that I sent an email reminder to those people who had booked online.

Do we ring everyone who has booked to remind them? (I'm somewhat anti this as it would be time consuming)

Do we issue tickets?

Do we make a nominal charge for our events?

Our events are free (and we offer light refreshments).

From an organisers point of view last night was disheartening. Just thinking of the staff time and effort that went into organising the event, promoting the event, organising a bookseller to sell copies of the authors books, catering, ...

Nevertheless the 13* people who did show up last night got to meet and hear a very interesting internationally renowned, young, successful, Australian, author talk about how he writes, what he writes, and why he writes.

It's a shame more people weren't there to hear him speak. He was certainly an interesting and inspiring speaker. (I'm almost tempted to dust off ye olde manuscript...)


* of the 13, three were members of the authors family but they had booked...

Rebound Books

Following on from my love affair with all things notebook and diary ... Rebound Books - they have a stall at Melbourne's Arts Centre Craft Market (upstairs on St Kilda Road) and they sell gorgeous notebooks, diaries, journals & photo albums.

For those of us who remember 'Little Golden Books' - check out Rebound's range of 2009 diaries.

Each of the handmade Little Golden Book diaries contain every page from the original book. There is one page from the story placed between each month so you can enjoy the whole story throughout the year.

The diary pages are printed in Australia using vegetable based inks on Australian made, 100% recycled paper. The diary has one week to an opening on the left hand side, and a blank journal page on the right.

Whilst the librarian/bibliophile in me freaks out at the thought of books being ripped apart, the notebook/diary/bibliophile in me loves these diaries and notebooks.

Mind you if I see a Chalet School, Drina, or Marlows, book made into one of these I will definitely be (a) determined to buy, and (b) devastated at its destruction.

Now to decide which ones to buy and who to gift them to.

How cool are these?

TappingBetty is getting the Pride & Prejudice one for her birthday (it's ok she doesn't read this blog; don't you dare tell her!)

I haven't been able to find an aussie stockist so I'll be buying them from the UK but I don't care - I must have one.

My notebook obsession

I am told that I am following some 'weird'* blogs.... mark it down to my love of all things stationery.

My current obsession is with notebook blogs - that is blogs about notebooks (the paper kind with covers, not the other name for a small portable computer).

I am fascinated by the blog that assesses notebooks that are similar to moleskine notebooks; then there is the blog that tests each notebook for line width, cover flexibility, paper thickness (using a sharpie pen, a gel pen, fountain pen etc.) to see if the paper is thick enough that. you can write on both sides.

I have yet to find a similar blog about diaries - that would be an absolute gem for someone like me who is constantly on the lookout for the 'perfect' diary.

One only has to ask petal who casually, in passing, mentioned to me what she loathed about her 2008 diary - she is now the proud owner of a kikki k 2009 diary, complete with built in filing system.

Now if only i can find my perfect diary (or even better the perfect diary blog!)

* weird is in the eye of the beholder - what is wrong with drooling over kikki k, smiggle, officeworks, filofax, etc?