bookmark_borderBeen and went and done it

I spent the weekend in London and have a posts garnered from a rather wonderful weekend. Here’s the first one:

Friday evening, a pub in London, and a gathering of bloggers. What can I say, a great night in the company of smart, funny people.

I’ve been blogging for a while now, and over that time I’ve retained a central group of blogs that I always visit. They are my daily reads (at least they were, the advent of RSS means they are now the “read as soon as they’ve posted” reads) and their popularity is well deserved.

During the evening, at a point that is slightly hazy (not only are they nice people, they are very generous too, hic!), I suggested that us bloggers should be less self-effacing and be proud of what we do. Sitting around the table were people who have been published, people who write for magazines and newspapers, and all of whom share one thing. Quality.

Then there was little ole me… (yeah, I don’t handle praise all that well…).

Quite seriously I had to pause myself during several points of the evening to take in the slightly surreal gathering. To give a comparison, most people, when asked, could provide a list of people who’d they invite to a dinner party. You know, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Hitler.. that kind of thing.

Well Friday night was my equivalent. Although, with all respect to the people who turned up, not QUITE in the same league. I mean who would bother chatting to Gandhi if mike from Troubled Diva was there?! (for the record, mike couldn’t make it, and truth be told it would be a hard decision to decide between him and Gandhi…).

My “list of bloggers I want to meet” has suddenly shrunk, far further than I thought (I retained a fear of sitting alone in a pub in London, desperately hoping someone, anyone, would turn up, only to be turfed out at the end of the night, alone).

Anyway, I guess I’d better name and shame. To all of you, thank you for taking time to come and meet me (even if not everyone managed to remember which pub it was in, and left a panic-stricken message on my voicemail, no names though…).

A list of attendees then, in no particular order as I after the first few drinks I kinda lost track…

Phew. God, I hope I’ve not forgotten anyone.

I did take some photos as well, but I managed to capture everyone at their worst. So I’ll plead ‘privacy’ on those and they’ll remain hidden anyway (in reality I’m just scared that, if I were to post them, I’d be hunted down and forced to start up a MySpace page!).

Once again, thank you. Thank you thank you thank you. It really was a great evening, and I only wish I’d managed to get more time chatting to each of you. Of course that was just the FIRST time I’ve meet you, here’s to many more.

bookmark_borderIt makes me happy

Cripes I almost forgot to mention the BBQ on Saturday. What to say, what to say.

Well for one the weather did it’s best to help, only a light drizzle later in the afternoon, by which time we were too sozzled to care, the food was fab as ever, I had a lovely big tuna steak, and the beer and cocktails flowed.

Arrived at our hosts at around 3pm and very quickly the conversation descended to it’s usual level, with the colour of lingerie the men preferred and whether their preference influenced the choice of their respective wives being a particular thread that sticks in my mind (alas the ladies weren’t QUITE drunk enough to model any for us). Louise started out on vodka cocktails and got quite drunk, she’s normally reasonable controlled when she drinks, and never SEEMS that drunk but she was really relaxed and enjoying herself. Thankfully she didn’t fall over but did come close a couple of times!

Fleeces were donned as the sun went down (this is part of the tradition now), but we were all nicely toasted and sat out for the rest of the night. Home at about 12.30 after a great day with some good friends that we don’t spend time with often enough (despite the fact most of us work together!).

Of course there are many snippets and stories I could tell, but I’m a gentlemen so I won’t. Yet.