In June this year my partner and I departed on a 7 week holiday that culminated in attending the NODCC conference in Orange County California. I had heard so much about the NODCC conference and wanted to experience it for myself, having attended the AusDoCC conference for the first time in 2017.

We spent 10 days in London and although we were traveling on a limited budget had a fabulous time. We stayed in a hotel which was more like a B&B, within an easy walk of a tube station and Kensington gardens (I am sure I even caught a glimpse of Prince William one day). This was great, as due to picture perfect weather, we were able to walk through the gardens everyday and catch the tube if our destination was more than a 60 minute walk away or after dark. Whilst there, we walked across both the London bridge and Tower bridge, saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and the cavalry at St James Palace. We did a fantastic night time Jack the Ripper tour, where we were told the stories of each murder. We went to Greenwich and took the obligatory photos of the meridian line. In Kensington gardens we happened to meet a gentleman who went to London each year for the Queen's birthday week. He feeds the parakeets whilst also inviting other people to join him, which I did. In his words “very

therapeutic” just standing there with handfuls of bird seed, allowing the parakeets to land on us for a feed – If they choose. We also did a tour of the Royal Albert hall and went to a free concert, because the orchestra happened to be doing a live rehearsal at that time. Our tour guide allowed us to sit in the box (next to the Queen's box) to listen to the rehearsal – of cinematic great's music scores eg E.T, Star Wars, Jaws etc. We also heard the acoustics from the standing room only gallery.

On another day, I met someone from Corpal, the UK ACC support group.

When our time in London came to a close we flew to America, where we did a 10 day tour with Insight. We had a great time exploring the national parks of America’s south west, starting at Las Vegas, exploring the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and ending with Zion Canyon. This included a Navajo's Indian cookout BBQ lunch in Monument Valley, the option of a float down the Colorado river and breakfast overlooking that famous river. This tour was with about 16 other couples and one family group. We would be told the night before what time our bags had to be ready and whether to leave them inside or outside the room. From there we wouldn’t see them again until they were delivered to our rooms the next night at our new accommodation. At the end of the 10 days we were taken back to Las Vegas airport, where they even had pokie machines at the gate and from there we flew to California, for the conference.

The Conference for me, was unfortunately not the highlight of the trip. I attended the program for adults with a DCC and felt that these sessions were presented in a way that did not cater to the interests of people with multiple abilities, across an age range of 18 – 80. It was difficult not being able to help younger adults, due to differences in our political, education and health systems. The other aspect that was hard for me was that I came in as a first timer, knowing no one. Many attendees had met at previous conferences and so were catching up with their ACC mates.

The sessions I attended were:

social relationships, in particular how to make & keep friends

social media awareness and what’s acceptable/ what’s not acceptable on social media

I went out on the social outing, to an arcade come fun park, where everyone went their separate ways with their mates

ask the adults with a DCC panel session.

I also attended one general program session, which was Colossal basics by Dr Warren Brown.

For me, my lasting impression was that AusDoCC are on par with NODCC, and for me easier, being my home country and all that goes with that.

Anna Uther