Leaving Rio Thursday 9th October 2014

I've survived Rio! I was so nervous about travelling alone to a country where one hears about violence and personal attacks, but I have had a great time. I have seen some sights, caught up with a past work and netball colleague and participated in the ISQua conference. It was different to paediatric conferences and took a bit to adjust to, but was really quite powerful in motivating me to promote patient safety, person-centred care and create robust systems to implement in healthcare. I have also taken some time to reflect on the year gone by and the challenges ahead. It's been good to get away from the day to day "busyness" that is all consuming and have time to think. OK, I confess to a bit of shoe-shopping and sun-baking too! The Brazilians have been very friendly. I have also mixed with delegates from all over the world at the conference - an inspirational experience. Here I am pictured with Bernice, Kimberley(fromm Australia) and Sandra(from Holland).

The networking reception began badly with an experience of Brazilian traffic. It took 1 hour 20 minutes to go about 3 km in the bus to get to the venue so we were all thirsty for our Caparanaihas by the time we got there. These are a cocktail mix of fruit, sugar syrup, ice, rum and liqueur and are delicious. Lime was my favorite!

For my final night, I looked out from my balcony and saw the moon rising across Ipanema beach and had to snap a photo to share on the blog. Flying out at 2am is not my favorite travel time but hopefully I will sleep well. See you back in Melbourne in a couple of days!