Manchester Museum Coffee Morning

Well...

I've met more bloggers in the last two weeks than you can shake a stick at, or shake a packet of low fat snacks at!

Today I took Presely and Cash to a particularly soggy Manchester to meet even more lovely bloggers, courtesy of Warbutons Snacks and Clarion Communications.

We met at the Couture Cafe in Manchester Museum. The organisers had thoughtfully provided crayons for the little ones and pictures to colour in. There was coffee, of course - what do you expect at a coffee morning?! There was also a gorgeous fruit platter and we did sample some of it, but the big draw for my boys were the plates of ChippidyDooDaas and wholegrain SnackaDoodles on every table.

Hats off to my children, they managed to consume their own body weight in snacks. I wasn't far behind them. Seriously, these new crisps - especially the ChippidyDooDaas, made from pitta bread - are delicious. 

 

My boys were well behaved, but it is tricky to chat when you're somewhere new and making sure they're both okay. I didn't even get to speak to some bloggers, for this I apologise.

If we did (or didn't) speak please say hi in the comments and we should try to organise another event in the North West.

Thank you to Warburtons for buying the boys some toys from the Museum and for my bag of goodies.

Oh and ChippidyDooDaa is a brilliant name for a snack!

.

Manchester Museum Coffee Morning

CyberMummy 2010

I apologise in advance to any readers who didn't attend the CyberMummy 2010 blogging conference. I'm sorry you weren't there, especially if you wanted to be, to experience a phenomenal day.

There are not enough superlatives to describe my experience. The content sessions were very good, the goody bags plentiful and the organisation excellent, but it was the bloggers that made it such a unique and powerful event.

When I walked into the reception of the Ibis Hotel in Earls Court, several of my favourite bloggers all ran over to greet me. I burst into tears. The rest of the day was a bit like that. Recognition was followed by grins, scream and hugs. 

I'm finding it difficult to describe just how amazing it is to meet people for the first time when you already know them so well. I felt like I had been friends with all of them for years. Conversation came easy, there was no need to make small talk. Everywhere I turned I saw my friends. Even bloggers I didn't know that well were friends by the end of the day.

I'm deliberately not mentioning any names, mainly because I haven't got time to add any links before the boys wake up from their naps, but I do want to thank Sian (Mummy Tips), Jen (Alpha Mummy) and Susanna (A Modern Mother) for bringing us all together.

I could have spent a week with everyone and still felt like we hadn't talked enough or hugged enough.

The most moving part of the day was the final content session, the crowd-sourced keynote speeches. These were blog posts read by the bloggers themselves. I was over the moon to be asked to read. Here I am:

It is one thing to write a post about having wind on your wedding day and the death of your father, but it is another thing entirely to read this to a room full of friends. I struggled to compose myself at the end.

The following morning I woke up crying. I couldn't stop, tears were pouring down my face. I think this was a release of emotion and grief and that can only be A Good Thing.

I was overwhelmed by the response from those in the room. I'd like to thank everyone for their hugs, kind words, tweets, emails and mentions on their blogs.

It was lovely to see so many of us winning prizes in the draw. Please, Weather Gods, let it be sunny enough for me to need my Summer's supply of Wilkinson's Sun Care products!

A few of us were sensible and had some dinner to soak up the wine, I even vlogged it!

The parties carried on late into the night (I know this because I was one of the last bloggers to go to bed)! There were more tears, brought on by laughter this time.

I can't wait for CyberMummy 2011!




.

CyberMummy 2010

Are we friends?

Look at these smiling faces. This is a photograph from the recent British Mummy Bloggers meet up at London Zoo.

I would have said that these were my friends. We have been reading each other's blogs for a while. We've left comments and built up an online relationship. I met and chatted to almost all of the thirty bloggers who attended. There was a friendly, excited atmosphere. I had a fabulous time.

Then I read Circle of Trust by the fabulous Josie at Sleep is for the weak. I also read the fifty comments - that took a while! I was going to comment myself, but my comment turned into this post.

Josie poses the question should we trust our online friends?

I initially thought, when I read Josie's post, that perhaps I am naive and far too trusting. I take everyone at face value. It hadn't crossed my mind that any of my online friends may not be who they claim to be.

I have loved making new friends on Twitter and via blogging, I hope these friendships are 'real'. I have found it so easy to make new friends this way, much easier than at Playgroup.

In my experience the people I have chosen to meet in real life have been just as wonderful as their online persona, especially the fabulous Kim.

I've been to two BMB meet-ups now, at London Zoo and at MOSI, and out of the forty or so people that I have met I would say only one was different to her online persona (she was so much nicer in real life)! I also met Josie at MOSI and I can tell you that she is as genuine and lovely offline as she is online.

Did I mention that I went to Downing Street last week? Just in case you were locked in a wardrobe or something, here is my post. This was another example of the power of social media. I met a few people there that I had only spoken to previously online. They're great people.

I guess you have to exercise the same judgement that you would in real life.

Having said all of the above, I have had one bad experience. I have hinted at it here and here. I met my ex online and he turned out to be a big fat hairy liar. Lying was one of his more likeable personality traits.

Amazing really that I tried internet dating again. The second time I tried it I met Andy, my husband. I will have to write about our eight hour first date at some point! Absolute proof that not everyone you meet online is a weirdo!

So, are we friends?

Photo credit: A Modern Mother

Are we friends?

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!

Blogger Blind Date!

A Pizza the Action!

The lovely Zooarcheaologist from Being a Mummy forwarded me an email from Louise at We Are Social. PizzaExpress are launching a new Leggera pizza and are inviting bloggers to try it. Goodness me, a free lunch. Is there such a thing? I suppose we'll find out!

The Leggera is a lighter pizza with a hole in the middle. The hole has salad in it. All for 500 calories. Sounds good to me.

I asked on Twitter and in the North West Mums group on British Mummy Bloggers to find out if any other bloggers fancied meeting me for lunch. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A few people said yes.

Gulp.

One of the best things about blogging is the supportive and friendly community. So why am I nervous about meeting fellow bloggers in real life? Well, I'm quite shy really. I've lived in Preston for less than two years and have only made a few friends. I'd like to make more.

So...

Lindy at Chronicles of Squidgyboo

Liz at The Hectic Mum

Sally at Who's the Mummy?

Yummy Mammy at Secret Diaries of a Wannabe Yummy Mammy

You are cordially invited to Pizza Express in Preston to try the Leggera.

Please email me (sandycalico@ymail.com) and we can move on to the joy that will be finding a date when we are all free!

***

There is also a voucher for two pizzas for £10 here.

A Pizza the Action!