27 September 2009

Blogger Blind Date!



Saturday was the big date. On Friday night I washed my hair. Despite blow-drying it, the fringe I cut myself didn't get any longer. I even shaved my legs. I regretted this as I watched blood pour down the plughole. My scabby ankle looked worse than a hairy one!

I took Presley along for moral support and took a seat in the Preston PizzaExpress.

After a few minutes the first of my 'dates' turned up. Lindy from Squidgyboo arrived with her beautiful daughter Squidge. Presley and Squidge eyed each other up and then decided to do some drawing with the pencils provided.

Next to arrive was Yummy Mammy. Closely followed by Sally from Who's The Mummy? with her adorable daughter Flea.

I felt slightly awkward to start with. As Sally pointed out we all know a bit about each other from reading our blogs, but this is the first time we have met in person. This awkwardness didn't last long and we were soon chatting away. We talked about blogging, but we mainly discussed our lives, where we lived and our families.

I'm no stranger to this blind date business. I met my husband Andy on the internet. We even went to a PizzaExpress as part of our eight hour long first date. We both had the same pizza, but different drinks. Ahhh.

Anyway, I digress, back to Saturday!

We all enjoyed the food. Dough balls, unsurprisingly, were a rather popular starter. We all had a pizza. I was the only one who tried the new Leggera, the pizza with a hole in the centre filled with salad. I normally order pizza and salad anyway and never eat it all, so this was ideal for me. I would have preferred less rocket in my salad, but was pleased the salad came with dressing.

Only the children had a pudding. They all had ice cream with chocolate sauce.

There was only one major incident. We didn't see it happen, but Presley was the main suspect. One of Flea's play people (a policeman no less) met a sticky end in Presley's ice cream. Six baby wipes and four napkins later he was returned, shaken, to his rightful owner!

We had a lovely time, but I'm sorry to say the service was shockingly bad. We hardly saw a waitress. We had to wait AGES for our food. The children were starving. Every time Presley saw someone in the restaurant with a pizza to pointed at it longingly.

Also there were no children's drinks on the menu. Everything came in a glass, well drinks and ice cream anyway. One waitress put my pizza and a sharp pizza cutter down next to my two year old. Not a good idea! Glasses were also put down within grabbing distance. Presley had his first taste of diet coke.

After two hours we all needed to go home, poor Lindy had already got a £25 parking ticket that day and didn't want another. We had our coats on. We were standing up. No one came. In the end I went to the counter and asked for the bill. I left the payment on the table. I'm not sure if anyone noticed we left!

I have to say this is the first time I've been to PizzaExpress and had bad service, it's usually excellent.

It was a lovely idea to get bloggers together and I hope we'll all meet up again.

Huge thanks to Louise Bury from We Are Social for matchmaking!



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8 comments:

  1. I couldn't help but pick up on your eight hour first date with Andy- awww.
    Shame about the service...always leaves a bad taste.

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  2. Sounds like you have a Pizza Express like my local one - shockingly slow service. My nephew has christened it Pizza Slow !

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  3. I was thinking the same as Chic Mama...eight hour first date?! You were made for each other ;)
    Our local Pizza Express is usually quite good for service but always heaving.
    Must have been lovely meeting up with other blogging mummies x

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  4. How lovely to meet up with other bloggers. Sounds like you had a top night!

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  5. Chic Mama, the 8 hour first date was pretty special! Maybe I'll blog about it... Yes, it was a shame about the service. It was the first time it has happened to me there, but unfortunately I was writing about it. I felt like a secret shopper!

    Muddling Along Mummy, Pizza Slow - brilliant!

    Clare, we are made for each other, I can feel a sickly sweet blog post coming on! The service was slow even when it wasn't heaving though!

    Baking Mad Mama, it was great to meet other bloggers. I'm meeting a few more this weekend too!

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  6. Sounds like you had fun :)
    Gotta love Pizza Express for helping spread the blog-blind-date love - I met up with Kellyfairy & Mrs OMG, and had a great time - felt like I'd known them years! :D

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  7. had a good time but the service really was beyond bad. Oh and the £25 ticket SUCKED! Need to blog about it. Are you going to MOSI this weekend?

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  8. Leslieanne, aw, I'm so glad you enjoyed your lunch too :-)

    Lindy, total bummer about the £25. Yep, we'll be there on Sunday. Will be great to see you again.

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