Wednesday evening already, and an interesting few days - but not the stuff that travel blogs are usually made of.

I won't bore the avid readership with a blow by blow treatment of the arcane academic stuff I worked on. I've basically spent time preparing and teaching a couple of classes - a graduate class in leadership and ethics and an undergrad class in law. The subject for my session in the law class was actually how you get sacked as a teacher in Australia. Not my primary area of expertise as you would all be aware. Still I tried to draw connections with the Pennsylvania experience and it seemed to go OK. 18 in the class . The masters class was more my natural territory. It was an interesting mix - quite different from our Aussie classes. For a start there were only 8 students (of a full roll of 10) There was a Sierra Leonese student doing a doctorate, 2 Chinese, and a mix of undergrad, post-grad and non-degree students doing various things from the States. It had people actually in leadership, a guy from the Lacrosse team doing a business degree, a couple of schoolies and a range of others. Quite a mix. The Sri Lankan guy on the roll was away so I couldn't engage in a cricket discussion. The challenge in a class like this which is purportedly leadership is that some had no experience, and others were not even in education - but it seemed to go well anyway. Sure beats the 65 in my class in Fiji!

Nancy had returned from a week of meetings in Italy very late on Sunday and was on deck on Monday. Between her and Jackie I have been extremely well looked after, and I've been able to bat quite a few ideas around regarding both some of my areas of interest and the operations of our centre partnerships.

The three of us went to dinner at a lovely old restaurant at Bellefont called Gamble Mill - which had been a flour mill in the Victorian era. I'll put up some pictures later as I forgot the lead to connect my phone (The one on the blog is from their website), but in the meantime you can read all about it here .

Travel arrangements for the trip from here to Victoria BC on Saturday were booked months ago. Then United changed their schedule which meant I had to replace a direct flight from Philadelphia to Seattle with one via Chicago. This meant I would miss the flight to Victoria. Lucie changed the booking on Alaskan Air to a later flight. All looks good on the itinerary but for some reason the airlines would not reissue the tickets. I now have a verbal assurance (with no name unfortunately) from United that I will be "uplifted" on their new flights, but Lucie has been unable to get anything from Alaskan for the hop from Seattle to Victoria.

I rang them. They said I was not confirmed and they could not re-issue as the ticket had been issued by US Air. I rang US Air. They said the only person who could make the change was Lucie. When I pointed out that she had been trying for months I got no further so asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was similarly inflexible. (All three people I spoke to were clearly in the Philippines - so at least I felt at home!). I was then forced to pass the advice back to poor old Lucie and suggested that if all else fails she book a new seat and we seek a refund later. I don't want to be ----- sleepless in Seattle! (Those who recall my earlier rants against the system can just replay some of those sentiments here :-( )

On a sadder note, Lucie just emailed to say her mum had died. Keep her in your prayers.

The next couple of days could also be a bit on the quiet side with some redrafting of an article and preparation for our conference session in Victoria - so don't hang out for much more than a few photos being added. That's all for now folks.