Since I started blogging I have made some wonderful ‘friends’ via twitter mostly, and if these people have blogs too I feel like I know them and their family even more too. I have followed their journeys over the last couple of years or so, watched their happy times and their not so jubilant ones and watched their families grow and seen their children blossom. For the slight voyeur within me (yes I am a secret – doh! – curtain twitcher!) its brilliant being able to take a look, to dip in and out of many peoples lives.
More recently I have been lucky enough to meet some of these amazing people and am lucky enough to call a few of them my real life friends now too. Yay!
Last Friday I travelled up to the big smoke a.k.a London to a meet and greet for myself and some other bloggers who have been selected to be Butlins Ambassadors.
I have to be honest as much as I was excited to be finding out about my new role and to be meeting some bloggers who I haven’t met before, I was mostly looking forward to seeing TheBoyandMe again and to meet at long last the lovely Lauren – my fellow flashback friday co-host!
I have been tweeting and reading Lauren’s blog for about 18 months I think….. maybe a little longer (not sure of exact date) and in that time I have seen the final stages of her pregnancy with Harry and watched his life from a newborn until now. I have seen Charles grow into a lovely big brother who is loving his new pre schooler life and his eyes still amaze me! I guess having two boys who are very similar in age to my own has helped Lauren and I to bond over our, usually, late night tweets and blog posts and comments. I have also seen Lauren’s journey into motherhood unravel. I have admired her breast feeding posts and courage to feed so openly. I have learnt about her struggles with anxiety and Harry’s birth and followed her gain back the confidence she lost as a result of these two incidents. She just seemed so lovely and friendly and I really hoped she was going to be as amazing in real life too. I thought she would be.
So having already met my friend TheBoyandMe at Paddington, we travelled along the underground and then made our way to the meeting point where Lauren had arranged to wait for us before we arrived at the Butlins ‘do’. I recognised her immediately and hugged her and I think kissed her and then got Charles’s name wrong!! How embarrassing! I think she and her eldest boy forgave me! Her boys are just as gorgeous in real life and I started talking to Charles like he knew me – he probably thought what a strange lady! (he’d be right!).
Anyway, the Butlins event was really good fun and suffice to say that with free wine flowing we three bloggers were a little tipsy, giggly and noisy! I felt like I was back at school – you know when you would get the giggles and then couldn’t stop laughing and eventually would get told to get out of the class? No? Oh that happened to me a few times! I blame that Darren from OneDadThreeGirls for our unruliness!!
I also visited the gents by mistake and wondered why there were only two cubicles and what I thought was a fancy all singing and all dancing hand washing machine must have been the urinal!!! Eeeeek! Fortunately, after realising that this was not a sink I found the real one and washed my hands thoroughly! Embarrassing but also funny and a flashback from last Friday I thought I would share!
Anyway, maybe it was the wine we all consumed, but Lauren was everything I had hoped she would be! Ha! that doesn’t sound right. What I mean is, for someone who was nervous about meeting a room full of people who she has never met before, and given her anxiety, she was so chatty, so friendly, beautiful inside and out and very,very funny! It is still makes me smile now when I think back to how much the three of us laughed!!
Another friend for life – another reason why I am so thankful for blogging.
This Lauren from Real Housewife Of Suffolk County appreciation fan club post
has been written as part of Flashback Friday, why not link yours up below
This is a linky where you can link up a flashback of your own
Remember a flashback can be from any time whether it be yesterday, last week, last month, last year or yesteryear! It can be a flashback of your own, your children, your partner or your friends. And if you don’t want to write a post, then just link up a photo with a da. If you don’t have time to write a new post, no problem simply link up a post you have already posted.
NEXT WEEK:
There is no theme so anything goes 🙂
NEXT WEEK:
There is no theme so anything goes 🙂
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Thank you xx
Thank you xx
Oh Jenny this means SO much to me. I am not crying right now.
I totally forgot about you going into the mens toilet! I think the wine had gotten to me too much at the time of you telling me that I simply forgot.
It was funny when you called Charles ‘Harry’. He was very taken by you and did keep asking if we would be seeing you and TheBoyandMe anymore whilst we were in London.
Thank you for being so lovely and for looking after me at the meeting. You really helped me feel comfortable xx
http://ll2.de/HKZ/
ahh lovely post Jenny…and only you would think a urinal was a handwashing sink!! x
it was a posh one ……… and i had been drinking!! 🙂
I’m jealous! I want to meet you too! Even more so now I’ve read Lauren’s post about how brilliant you are and how shiny your hair is and how lovely your teeth are! Not fair 🙂 xx
Awww now I want to meet Lauren too.!!
Well jel too! I haven’t met anyone I’ve ‘met’ through blogging and think that needs to change since I actually speak to some more than real-life friends. eeeek!
I’m glad that you both had such a great meet – Herding Cats
That’s the best part about blogging to me aswell – I’ve made some lovely friends that I consider to be real friends.
I wish I’d been at the Butlins do…sounds like I missed a good one. x
I love this and what a great photo of the pair of you! Sadly, everyone has made the shameful visit to the wrong loo, haha xx
Wow, great picture you both look stunning! We’re glad that you both had an awesome time! What was the highlight of the “Butlins” do?
What a gorgeous picture! You look like you’ve been life long friends for years! I love blogging for the people you read about and chat too and, if you’re lucky enough, you meet them in real life.
seeing my blogging friends and the giggles we had. the actual event itself was really good too and I learnt a lot about Butlins and their approach to their marketing and advertising strategies x
Awww lovely post, sounds like lots of fun – I look forward to meeting other bloggers and hopefully making friends in the future too xx
That’s great, were are so glad to hear that you enjoyed it! 🙂 Do you and your blogger friends meet up often? 🙂
How dare you blame ME!! I was led astray.
It was a great day and everyone was really friendly.