*pushed through the public speaking fear
*discovered new protein foods
*made a new friend

Hi everyone, back from the conference in Italy. The talk was not my best effort, to be honest, I was shaking and I wasn't able to answer a question afterwards. After sitting down, I wanted to cry, but reminded myself I was probably BE crashing and to just let it go. There was a poster session afterwards, and that was casual and I chatted with people, swapping ideas and sharing our work, and I felt much better then. My main goal of attending wasn't to present, but to learn, and mission accomplished I learned loads about identifying and testing for biomarkers.

I followed advice and focused on regular meals, which meant that when I was wandering around Florence, when meal time approached I forced myself to stop and eat wherever I happened to be. I discovered tripe and beef cheek, both delicious. I also ended up chatting to an American who had lived there 20 years ago. My favorite meal was at Osteria Pastella. The starter was calamari with courgette "pasta", I managed to avoid white pasta and didn't miss it.

Breakfast has been a challenge since returning and having to prepare my own again, as browns were in short supply in the house. Back to basics this week.
KirAnn