Only up until I arrived at “Hoverlya” did I truly appreciate our so-called ‘Melbourne weather’. After existing a 16° air-conditioned car, to the scorching 42° atmosphere of Sydney, I must admit I thought to myself with pity “There’s no place like home!!!” Not long after however, Mother Nature changed my mind. As I slithered my way around the grounds, reminiscing about ‘old times’ (which mind you were just as hot!), I decided to make my way to the river and cool off a little.

With two fellow Victorians also melting by my side, we jealously bid farewell to Slavko Duma as he drove away in his comfortable car to bring back food, but not before he reminded us again of the temperature – still 42°! We silently cursed our way to the river, until our Victorian radar’s kicked in… and we saw it…. black clouds. Still in dying need of refreshment we dipped our feet in the river and never appreciated natures gifts more. But Mother Nature knew how we felt. She knew we could not handle such conditions – so she did us a little favour. Not 15 minutes after Slavko departed I started to feel rain. Only soft drops but rain nonetheless.

With smiles stretching from ear to ear, we Victorians started heading back to the hall. Within that 500m walk, the rain had gone from droplets to virtually golf balls. Now this was Melbourne weather! She didn’t stop there though. Our dear Mother Nature decided to play a little joke on the organisers of our subsequent very successful CYMnet Conference, and created such a ruckus that we lost power.

Can you imagine? An internet conference with no electricity!

Much like yourselves now, we laughed too - slightly more than the organizers of course, but the irony was too much. We decided not to panic and simply call the appropriate people and just wait to see what happened next. In the mean time we found other ways to amuse ourselves while Slavko whipped up a delicious meal (to the best of his ability considering).

Hours went by, and it started to get dark. With limited choices in our activities we decided to sit down together and chat. After that experience, I would now like to share a feeling with our seniore and older druzhynyky (you know who you are) – you have no right to give kara to any molodshi and/or particularly starshi yunaky for misbehaviour at camp. Not after the mischief I heard you all used to get up to. Hypocrites! And what’s with carrying shotguns while on stijka? Say it with me…. ‘lawsuit’! Ok, that may seem a little drastic, but some the stories we heard… HA! Our generation has gone soft by the sound of it. Anyway back to the story.

At around 11pm that evening, the power came back. As reluctant as we were to stay awake, we all watched a DVD on the big screen, simply because now we could. The next day proved just as eventful. As we all awoke in a muggy sweat from the sensational Sydney weather (choke choke), we showered, changed and prepared for a nice breakfast and to kick start the much anticipated conference. Though sure enough, once again – no power. At this point we started to worry a little. By the afternoon participants from Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Geelong were ready to go, but still we had no power. Finally an executive decision was made to pack up, and head back down to Sydney to hold the conference there. Those who arrived that day went home, while the others helped pack and relocate the computers for the Internet Café for camp. There was one thing I distinctly remember Kathy Kaminskij saying to me, that I sadly believed would be the case. She said “Wouldn’t it be funny if we packed all this up and the power came back on?” Although we giggled then, we were certainly laughing when it came true. Sure enough, the power returned and the conference was back on. Everyone returned – again, and we were finally ready to go.

The conference was a great success. All participants were enthusiastic about the topics covered and were all eager to get their oseredok or cultural group online. Peter Duma gave us an introduction into the CYMnet is and how we can use it as a tool of information and communication rather than just a website. Stepan Duma taught us the nitty gritty of how to get our sites up and running. It’s amazing how much gibberish a computer can read, but it’s even more amazing how interesting it becomes once you understand it too. We learned about playing with different types of graphics from Justin Senko, as he took us through resizing images, distorting them to create something new, and making personalised banners (that was my favorite – once I worked out how to do it that is). Finally Andrew Duma presented us with a short film which led us into the art of video editing. Each presenter capably expressed passion as they spoke during their presentations. It was clear to see they enjoyed what they did, and so they did it well. They openly helped us ‘beginners’, and were a huge asset to the (later) smooth running of the conference.

I cannot forget however, one person who had a huge impact on our time at Hoverlya – the chef. Slavko – our meals were scrumptious. Feel free to come and cook for us again any time.

On behalf of myself and Christina Polatajko who attended the conference with me, we would like to thank Stepan, Peter, Justin, Andrew and Slavko for all your hard work and help in creating a successful and worthwhile conference. Our hat’s go off to you.

To view our work in progress, click on www.cym.org/au.

Juliana Moravski
Melbourne Oseredok