One benefit of working for The Warehouse is you get your birthday off. I usually defer mine to make the Auckland Anniversary long weekend even longer. That's why, a couple of weeks back, I finished work on Thursday anticipating a long lazy weekend at home with no plans to fight the holiday traffic. I was also going to finally decide what to do for a summer holiday. For the past several years this has been sorted long before summer as I've joined a cycle tour in New Zealand or elsewhere. I'm not doing that this year and had put off making any plans; procrastination due to indecision!
Then I got home and opened email inviting me, and a few other CAD bloggers, to meet with the AutoCAD team in San Francisco for a special event to be held at the Autodesk Gallery at One Market. My "Birthday Day Off" became a scramble to replace a nearly expired passport (I had no international plans till AU 2009 in November, if then) and revising my New Zealand Summer Holiday to become a Winter holiday in San Francisco! I travelled early and took the opportunity to meet some bloggy contacts and cycle touring friends in the Bay area.
It's a 13 hour non-stop trip from New Zealand, this time much more pleasant as there were only 180 people on a 747. Although flying cattle class I got a whole row to myself and could lie down and sleep like the folks at the posh end of the plane. I must thank the Air NZ Cabin Crew who rescued me from my own stupidity, forgetting to check my Bose Headphones had a battery. I hadn't used them since they were replaced after my Viet Nam trip and got on the plane to find no power, which means no sound or quiet! One advantage of the older, bigger, Bose QC2's is they run on a standard AAA battery rather than the special rechargable later models require.
Right now I can't share much about the AutoCAD event because I'm not entirely sure what it is going to involve. However, if you’d like to see part of it there is a live web-cast tomorrow:
Thursday February 5, 12:00 (midday) USA PST, 20:00 UTC (GMT)
Friday February 6, 09:00, New Zealand
It will be great to meet the AutoCAD team and fellow bloggers, some for the first time and others I've met before at Autodesk University. More to follow!
Disclosure: Flights and event related accommodation provided by Autodesk.
PS: Until today I've been staying at the Holiday Inn Express Fisherman's Wharf. I've stayed here on previous trips and can recommend it. It's got a good location, affordable rates and brilliant free fast broadband! My Flickr uploads have been testing that!