On Duty Free, and Booze.

Ok, so, LCA2005 was great, and I had a wonderful time catching up with all these folks that I hadn't seen in ages. Excellent.

Anyway, as is your duty when you travel abroad, you must buy alcohol in Duty Free on the way home. I did this. Let's say why first - On this particular trip, I wasn't really wanting to get anything for us (my girlfriend and I).. the cupboard at home is stocked quite well. But, I did owe a workmate a small debt, and he said he'd love to get a bottle of his favourite whiskey as payment.

It happens to be a 21 year old Glenlivet. Expensive, mmk? Ok, this is fine, I do owe him that much, so the price isn't an issue. Anyway, I arrive in Sydney from Canberra, and spend a good day catching up with another Debian Developer (bod), and get to do a little Geocaching - sweet, I had some Travel Bugs to drop off.

To the airport with enough time to check in, get through security, and do the things I need to do (and you still end up waiting.. grr).

So, I wandered towards the immigration/security place, and stumbled across Downtown Duty Free. I had a little poke around, wondering if they had a 21yo Glenlivet. Turns out they do. Woot! And I only came into the store, because they had an AU$5 for 200ml of Johnnie Walker Black Label deal! Mmmm. After purchasing both, with a little interlude whilst I jumped onto the net with my PDA to transfer some funds to my Visa for the purchase, I dutifully wandered off to do the immigration/security thing. No worries. Came out the other side, fetched my Duty Free purchases from the collection point on the Other Side(tm), and boarded the plane to head to Auckland. Arrived in Auckland - whilst waiting on the flight to disembark, I had a peek in the Duty Free bag. There was a 200ml bottle of JW. Cool. And a bottle of 12yo Glenlivet. Swee... HOLD ON! 12 year old?!%^@!#!? F**K!.

Turns out they'd screwed up and packed the wrong bottle into the bag at the collection point. So, I have since done the deed and called to harrass them - they've given me 1 of 2 options:

1. Take a refund from the 21yo price to the 12yo price - ~AU$100 (a bottle of 21yo scotch is expensive, remember?)
2. Have someone pick up a 21yo bottle from a Downtown store for me, on their way to NZ. This has the advantage of giving me a free 12yo.

You can tell which option I want, right?

So, there happens to be a group of aussies coming to Dunedin in just under a month for Ghosts of past LCA's.. I can hopefully swing one of them to drop by and grab it for me.. But, if anyone else is heading to NZ sooner - please drop me a line, I'd love to organise with you to pick it up for me!

The moral of the story? Either never purchase stuff Duty Free at one of those pre-immigration display stores, or ALWAYS check what you pick up at the collection point, to see if it matches the receipt you get.

[00:46] [/Life] [permanent link]

And So It Begins...

Well, I thought I'd better write an entry considering LCA2005 is over, and it's now my ballgame for 2006... *gulp*.

So, the conference was cool, lots of neat people about to chat to, and a few stressed organisers to observe... The future feels somewhat foreboding. They did a wonderful job though, and credit to them. They can now relax, and enjoy the fact that they have lives. Or do they?

Anyway, the talks were good, and a lot of variety was to be had. Sadly, I managed to miss a few - mainly due to clashes, and also because I spent a fair bit of time annoying the organisers. Lots of questions and stuff. The only ones who don't get away with relaxing are those that are coming to Ghosts next month, and Tony, who's joining my team for logistical reasons.

It's become a bit of a 'thing' that I'm a 'fan boy' or some such - I blame AJ and elmo, they kept saying it. I had a huge number of people asking me about getting "Bdale fan club" buttons (you know, the american name for badges). No thanks to Elizabeth Garbee for that one. I'll actually make an excuse here, and say I was just schmoozing the cool people to make sure they'll come next year of course! (Hey, elmo: You little ripper!)

So, my little presentation at the conf close sucked, but that's ok, it wasn't meant to be anything spectacular! Putting that aside, In Jeff Smith^WWaugh's words, "ROCK ON!" - Dunedin will rock, and we'll make sure of it. Make sure you come if you can, it's a great place!

So, does anyone have a contact to get good "mates rates" price on psychological treatment? I have a feeling I'll need it in about 10 months...

[01:57] [/LCA] [permanent link]