Now Voyager: Sunday at Conference

It's day one of the World AIDS Convention and the buzz is here, there and everywhere. It is indeed a mammoth undertaking and the Melbourne Convention Centre is more than up to it. I have just traversed most of the venues, getting very lost in the process, but nevertheless getting a good idea of the immensity of this world-wide biennial convention. And this is a smaller one, because of its faraway location, only about fifteen thousand as against twenty-five thousand a couple of years ago in Washington DC. The next one is in Durban, one of the epicentres of AIDS so that will be gigantic.

First I have caught up immediatley with Lesley and all his PNG friends in the Global Village. I have registered and collected my showbag of goodies, with so many brochures and info paks I didn't know what to do with them, so have sifted through and kept half of them for later perusal. The Global Village is free for all, whereas the interior where I now am is for registered delegates who have paid their money or on scholarships like me. The first talks will be big ones because of the Ukraine tragedy and as it is the grand opening of the convention. There is no way I will catch Michael Kirby tonight so I will wait for another occasion.

The queues for the first plenary session seem to be hundreds of metres long so I am sitting gazing and waiting for the throngs to dissipate somewhat before I venture into the cavernous space of the Melbourne Convention Centre. I was given some food vouchers and already have eaten one of them, a Caesar Chicken Salad which was OK. So I am now fortified. On examining the program I am exhausted by its breadth and complexity so will try and keep my attendance simple and interesting. It will anyway be an exhausting experience. The queue is moving so I may now take my place and see what happens in the great hall, surrounded by a multiplicity of tongues all seemingly loving this experience of hearing about one of the deadliest epidemics the world has ever seen. Funny that.