Sydney adventure – the book launch – part one

Read this first. Here is my ever cavet on a blog post. This post is massively self-indulgent; don’t say I didn’t warn you. Also, if you are on twitter and I fail to mention you, and I did in fact see you – I cannot apologise enough. I should have kept notes, but I didn’t. Sorry in advance. Please don’t be mad. Note also that I have referred to peeps by the Twitter ‘handle’ so you can look them up.) It will be in two parts – because it is so long and is taking a long time to write due to ‘fact checking.’

When you have a very intense experience, and you pack a lot into 53 hours, it can be hard to write about. Where to start? Favourite bits? Chronological order? Funniest bits? Best alone in a big bed bits? Best I’m away by myself and I couldn’t be more pleased bits?

I have recently returned from Sydney, the town that I know and love. I went by myself. I left my lovely man and my love child to fend for themselves. I left NO notes. They will figure it out, I reckoned. After all here’s what the Commentator General had to say about it:

Preparations well under way for three days looking after baby with no @stellaorbit . Surely 16 months is old enough for pizza and DVD night

April 27, 2011 10:39 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@CommentatorGen

Robert Gotts

I cleaned up the house, packed the car, loaded the playlists and was off. Fittingly as I drove out of the petrol station at the edge of town Booker T and the MGs started up Green Onions. It seemed it I was off to a good start. It was just me, the trucks and the grey nomads driving to Sydney and none of them were going anywhere as exciting as me.

I was driving to Sydney to attend the launch of Kerri Sackville’s book When My Husband Does the Dishes … I was, putting it mildly, wildly excited. Months in the planning and anticipation, the launch of Kerri’s book was to bring two worlds colliding at full speed. The real world, where we are not two dimensional avatars and the virtual world, where our better shinier selves live. For Kerri, especially, this represented a huge collision. Her family and friends were mobbed in a bookshop by a horde of people screaming ‘oh it’s YOU’ at each other and whipping out their iphones to photograph the moment and then tweet about it.

Ariel chock full for the launch of When My Husband Does the Dishes ...

Kerri’s book launch was just the right amount of excuse I needed to get away from everything and everyone for a couple of days. I booked my favourite hotel in Potts Point – sadly it has gone downhill after being sold to a chain (who would have thought! I know) However it is still a fantastic location and walking distance to the book launch – I planned ahead, a long way ahead. This meant that I was perfectly placed and relaxed for a short walk to the pre-launch tweet up at The Beauchamp. I was walking into a pub to meet people who I knew would be there but who I had never met! People I’d been dying to meet.

I stopped briefly to check my phone and there was a message from @AnIdleDad, he was already at the pub. I sent off a message saying I would be there is less than a minute. Then of course, I had to find him. He has a cartoon avatar. I’d never met the man. I had no idea. Luckily, it was easy since the Beauchamp was practically empty and he was the only straight man for about 2 kilometres at that moment. After a quick hello the pub was flooded with others who’d just arrived. (Now I am totally scared I will forget someone who was there – hence the please don’t be mad cavet) We were joined by @macsnorky, @traceyb65, @KallieT, @TwitchyCorner, @ptmaree, @propinqua, @danyadoi, @Skip91 soon after. There were introductions and real names may have been used. We showed each other photos of our children – bless. Many iphones were on display. It then poured with rain. Bucketed for about 5 minutes. Then just as quickyly stopped. Phew. I suggested we get moving, to avoid the rain and so we could make the most of the free booze at the launch. Off we went to Ariel, a 2 minute walk. We walked into a parallel universe where the virtual and the real world had crashed together in spectacular fashion.

After discovering that there were name tags but not one for me – sob. My crushing disappointment at this made me momentarily socially spastic. I failed to properly introduce myself to Kylie Ladd! Yeah. I know. Stupid. But I quickly recovered and stopped pouting. Then it was off for a bout of shouting ‘OH it’s YOU’ every few seconds as someone else, I had been speaking to regularly but had never met hove into view. Then one the highlights of my night; I met @fender4eva. The perfect perfect gentleman and the reason for the return of Kerri’s writing mojo in the form of her blog and then the book. Here he was in the flesh. A delight. In quick sucession, and with at least one champagne under my belt I met fantastic people. One after another after another.

After a while we looked like this:

Kylie Ladd, me, Nick Ellis, John Purcell and Annie Reuss

To be continued …