Dr Karl Book Signing

/ Out & About

It’s Friday, 20th December, 2024.

I had finished work for the year. Lucky for me, I was working from home. I clocked off at 4:30pm, decompressed from the holiday work rush, and headed to the shops to do some christmas shopping.

An hour into my shop and walk-around, I see a figure sitting at a table in front of a Dymocks store. Upon walking closer, it turns out to be Dr Karl Kruszelnicki – a prominent media personality in science communication. He was around to sign his new memoir A Periodic Tale.

After a brief chat and a thank-you, I was on my way, cuddling what will be an interesting life for the ages.

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USA Trip (abridged) 2024

/ Life

For two weeks in October 2024, two mates flew from Sydney to L.A. and went on a bit of a road trip. Hitting up Disneyland Anaheim just for Star Wars, then driving to Vegas for Omega Mart, Blue Man Group and beverages. Followed by driving through Death Valley, admiring the atmosphere of Yosemite National Park, San Jose for a 49ers game, then driving over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, wrapping up in L.A. for an L.A. Kings hockey match. Plus more beverages.

We met some amazing people throughout the trip, whom I asked permission from everyone before recording.

This is an abridged version of previous entries to my ‘an inconsistent vlog’ catalogue.

I have inserted my generic production music to replace or cover up copyrighted music that I can’t fully remove.

  • 0:01:15 – October 21 – Sydney to arrival in L.A.
  • 0:03:33 – October 22 – Disneyland Anaheim
  • 0:15:22 – October 23 – Anaheim to Las Vegas
  • 0:23:51 – October 24 – Omega Mart, Blue Man Group & I Love Sugar in Vegas
  • 0:37:39 – October 25 – Shopping in Vegas plus eating and drinking
  • 0:47:25 – October 26 – Area 51 and Death Valley
  • 0:53:15 – October 27 – Yosemite National Park and 49ers
  • 1:01:09 – October 28 – San Francisco
  • 1:15:12 – October 29 – Santa Cruz and Pismo Beach
  • 1:19:11 – October 30 – Heading back to L.A.
  • 1:29:28 – October 31 – Shopping in L.A.
  • 1:32:12 – November 1 – Funko HQ and heading home

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Lining up for Lune

/ Out & About

The hype of the croissanterie that is Lune has arrived in Sydney, after having a cult following in its heartland home of Melbourne.

Lucky for me, Lune has opened up a block down from my CBD office, and today my regular train was cancelled. So I had to catch an earlier train, which meant I had 45 minutes to twiddle my thumbs. The best way to do that was to stand in line at Lune for a good 30 minutes and devour the treats within.

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Meet and Greet with an Idle

/ Out & About

It was a day that was weeks of build-up, then a threat to the day, then much rejoice.

Monty Python legend Eric Idle was in the country doing a stage tour in various parts of the southern hemisphere for a few weeks, followed by being the big name star for the Sydney Just For Laughs show at the Opera House.

Just before I shut down my Twitter account, Idle posted a tweet about a free book signing for his Spamalot Diaries at George Street Dymocks in the city on a Friday. Since I missed out on his stage show this time last year because someone caught the spicy cough, I thought I wasn’t going to miss him this time round. I booked my free spot, and told Dad to do the same.

Fast forward to the week of the signing, the trains were threatening a 3 day shutdown to the NSW Government. If their demands were not made, they’d take out the comfy chair and soft cushion. So on Wednesday, Dad and I considered the day a write-off and we won’t be able to attend. Until… Thursday evening, news rang out that the shutdown was cancelled and trains will run as normal. There was much rejoicing.

On Friday, I went into the office to work, then met up with Dad and my nephew. We walked to the Dymocks five minutes away, and thinking we had our spots reserved – there was a massive line within the store.

That’s fine – everyone is here for the same reason.. it’ll go fast. Then I realised people had the book in their hands with a receipt. You had to buy the book beforehand… DUH! So I ran to the counter and got Dad and myself a book each. A staff member was walking around to people in the line with books in their hand to write their names on a post-it note to make it easier for Eric to sign away. I was ready to meet.

Turns out we were in line for one whole hour, gradually moving to the front. We got there in the end, and I let Dad meet him first. We were on a time limit due to the amount of people in line, but Dad made a joke about him and Eric going to the same barber (grey hair etc). Then he moved on. I was next.

I’m going to brag – I’ve been extremely lucky to meet many high profile personalities due to my career, but meeting Eric – I froze and went quiet.

The assistant passed my book to Eric, who said “Are you Matthew?”

I went quiet and stared past him.

“Matthew? You’re Matthew aren’t you? Are you OK?”

I snapped out of it and said in a soft voice “..ooh yes. I am Matthew. Sorry!” and awkwardly smiled. I watched him sign away, and I stumbled to get my phone out to take a selfie. Then I realised we were told earlier that he wasn’t going to do photos. But Eric’s other assistant gave me the nod to do it but one photo only.

Thanks to my nephew, he was around as a backup to take photos on his phone.

I loosened up a bit after the photo, gave a quick thank you, then left… shaking off the nervous energy. As we walked down George Street, Dad’s face was grinning ear to ear.

My signed book will sit beautifully next to my autographed Michael Palin diaries (I didn’t meet him, but these got ordered via his site).

 

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