More from Washington DC
April 1, 2014

Another day in Washington. Feels like I have been here forever now. The conference proper started today. Fortunately they serve breakfast as part of the conference because I am getting tired of paying $21 for breakfast. The conference food has actually been quite good.  Nice continental breakfast this morning.  I had a bagel and cream cheese – good All American breakfast.

I spent the day at the conference. Opening session was a plenary and they had some local university band playing during the opening ceremony. Best part was when they played ‘Happy’.  Otherwise underwhelmed. Opening speaker was quite interesting as opening speakers go at actuarial conferences. After that there were elective sessions. I went to listen to two SA speakers and thereafter the conference descended into the abyss for me. Next speaker was from Benin and it reached a low point when he answered a question and went into French for about 5 minutes! In the afternoon session, the first presenter was quite good (hate to admit it as he was from a competitor) but the next two speakers went from bad into terrible.  The last speaker was a Danish academic and his talked involved mathematics terms I have never heard of and double and triple integrals. Seriously – who could possibly have been interested in that?!

My day finished off with dinner with the Europeans including the future president of the International Actuarial Association. We went to local restaurant and definitely the best one that is across the road.  Helen missed out on the best restaurant here.  Excellent food and quite an enjoyable, socialable dinner.  Overall one of those killer conference days which has resulted in me not looking forward to tomorrow!

capitol buildingMichael on the other hand got to experience the Capitol building today and enjoyed probably the best weather we have had so far in DC.  Not only did he get to have Coco Pops for breakfast from the Capitol Building cafeteria but he can now claim to have seen and done something that I have never done. He was suitably impressed by the building and surprised by the lack of security.

Michael is now an old hand on using the DC Metro system and walking around the neighborhood. The beauty of being in a place that you don’t have to worry about safety and you can walk around at 9pm in the evening.

Helen and Chloe drove from Knoxville to Johnson City TN today (from one family member to the other). Helen seems to have mastered driving on the other side of the road. Either that or Chloe has been bribed into silence. Besides knowing they arrived safely in Johnson City the only other thing I know they did today was go shopping. The only reason I know that is because Helen has been sending pictures of strange foodstuffs to us. #keepherselfamused

Here’s to hoping that tomorrow isn’t so boring …

 

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