The day began at the designated hotel of many of us attendees of the British Deaf Association (known as BDA thereafter) conference. As soon I sat down with my breakfast, I chuckled quietly when I saw that many Deaf British were greeting each other with excitement! Some didn't see each other for ages, and some were busy planning for the day along with some hungovers obviously from Friday's social.

I followed the stream of Deaf British to Albert Hall across the square, where the conference was being held. The stream entered the front doors and went downstairs to the basement, where much to my amazement (I shouldn't be, eh?) there was an exhibition already set up very much like N.A.D. in Palm Desert. I picked up my tickets for the day, and since I had a hour to spare (this was 9 a.m.) I decided to check out the exhibition area.

The B.D.A. Exhibition is so much like the N.A.D. exhibition. However, it is much smaller in scale - I believe there were only 11 booths. My favorite were the two Deaf book companies - the Forest Books and Deaf Internet Bookstore. I spotted a book at the Deaf Internet Bookstore called "Milan", written by a Deaf British fellow named Nick Sturley - it is science fiction, believe it or not! It is a what if type of book about the 1880 Milan Congress. I had to have it, and I bought it but I haven't read it yet....

Another favorite was the Full Stop booth. The two ladies running this booth were simply divine, and they are so much like Julie Rems of Deaf Hope - only that Full Stop is an organization geared at stopping abuse to Deaf children. I was horrified when these ladies were telling me that all child molestors of Deaf children in England have been protected to this date, and even the Catholic Church helps them, too. I told them about Deaf Americans, so they were very happy I could relate to them. I gave them info about the Deaf Hope website. Why not? Sigh, eh?

Soon it was 10 o'clock, when the BDA conference would start. I ran into some people I was familiar with, and one of them was Frances Elton of University College, London. She does great work with linguistics. We had a wonderful chat! I laughed when I looked at my watch, which said 10:30....so, them Deaf British are just like us...prolonging time as Deaf Standard Time! Frances laughed, too - she said I got it right! Finally this vibrant lady came on stage.

She was Rachell Bastiker, the vice chair (as in vice president) of the B.D.A. She introduced herself, and said a man would come up momentarily to explain the safety issues of Albert Hall. This was news to me, because I've never attended a conference where someone came up on the stage to explain safety issues. Then when the man finished, Rachell resumed her speech. The main content of her speech was that they need to develop a stronger Sign community.

Will resume writing as someone needs this free computer....stay tuned! Kisses.