London conferences

I live just outside Belfast and work in Ballymena. Yet, I somehow manage to get the opportunity to go to London for the odd conference now and again. I attended an Assessment for learning conference in London yesterday and am totally exhausted today! You get up at 4, get to the airport for 5am, fly at 620am, arrive at 730am, get into London by 0845 and the conferecne starts by 930. Blah Blah Blah . . . conference ends at 1630, get some dinner, get the train and back to the airport for flight at 2110 and Belfast by 2220 and home by 2300. Its a long old day! It causes serious brain drain - especially when you do try to listen and apply some of the thoughts and ideas that the speakers are talking about. The main reason I wanted to go was to hear the educational guru Paul Black talk and I have got to admit that I was disappointed not to have learnt anything new from him and to find his level of presentation was not good. However, did manage to get a lot out of a talk on peer assessment by a Geographer - which is always good!