A room full of nature nerds goes wild

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Last Friday I achieved a life goal I never thought possible.

I sat in the same room as one of my childhood idols. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know that I was extremely excited to be attending Sir David Attenborough - A Life On Earth.

I couldn't quite believe it.

I was going to see the man who was responsible for my fascination with nature and in particular, animals. He's been a major formative influence in my life.

I'd spent the afternoon working myself into a slowly building crescendo of tizz. 

I dressed up. I put on makeup. I decided to drive into the city. I fretted about what time to leave.

I left ridiculously early.

I went to the wrong car park.*

Once I finally got to the right car park I gulped down a sophisticated pre-show dinner.

I am all class.

Blogger discovers that an iPhone camera makes an excellent mirror,
allowing her to touch up pointless makeup in the crappy Crown food court.

Then I realised that I had no idea how to get to the Conference and Exhibition Centre on foot.**

So naturally I walked in the wrong direction, my panic and stress reaching breath-stealing proportions.

Finally! Found the right place. Queued and bought his autobiography - DEVASTATED that I hadn't queued early enough to get a signed copy.

Not a signed copy because LATE

There was a real buzz in the Plenary, where an intriguing mixture of the very old, very young and hipsters in silly hats waited with a shared sense of excitement - we were about to see someone very, very special. 

I tried to control my nerves. I wanted to be totally "present" to soak it all in.

Why was I nervous? It was ridiculous. I wasn't going to meet him. He was about to come on stage in front of hundreds of people and he was probably less nervous than I was.

This blog post about meeting Attenborough by Lucy Cooke was probably playing on my mind. Attenborough is my Jesus too.

The lights finally dimmed. 

The man himself came on stage and a room full of nature nerds went wild with applause, whistles and there may even have been a small squee from this aging nature fangirl.

A terrible photo but a fantastic night.

I've written a review of the night here at the Shake. Please go have a gander, and if you get a chance, go see the man in person. You won't be disappointed.

* MCEC, the parking instructions on your website sucks.
** Crown, your signage sucks and your pedestrian precinct smells of excrement and vomit.