The Secret Life of an Unknown Housewife: meet up

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

London Bloggers Afternoon Tea.

Posted by Unknown

I was fortunate enough to attend a Bloggers Afternoon Tea at the rather posh Mercer Street Hotel this Saturday just gone. It was organised by the lovely Selena, whose Travel Blog Oh The Places We Will Go! is an old favourite of mine. As is Selena!!

I trundled off to Mercer Street in Covent Garden feeling a tad nervous, but probably more excited than scared!

I walked into a private room to discover 19 bloggers from nearly every corner of the world. There were women from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Holland ...the list goes on. What joined us all together was our love of blogging and more than a passing interest in cake!

Everyone made me feel very welcome and it was wonderful to see Selena and Gina from Sweet Serenity again. I had read through the blogs of the other women there, but had never met them before, so it was a treat to be able to meet them in person.

I have to say that I try to come over as confident and smiley at occasions such as this ( that sounds as if I attend functions all the time!!! Durrr ... I don't!) but I do find it hard. I am not brilliant at socialising with people I don't really know and can sometimes feel a bit awkward and gauche inside.

I really noticed how hard everyone tried to make other people feel relaxed. When I say that I don't mean that the atmosphere was strained or forced, I mean that the room was filled with laughter and eye contact and a genuine interest in what people had to say.

If you had told me 7 years ago, when I was thinking of setting up my blog, that I would find myself in a room full of strangers I had only met online up to that point, I would have thought it impossible and probably very foolish!!

But I am so glad that I went along. Most of the other bloggers were expats, a lot were travel writers and all were very nice. The thing that struck me was their interest in the world around them. They did not settle into one niche of parent or travel writer or mature student ... they were multi-faceted, interesting and interested women ... intelligent and articulate with something to say about the world we live in. They made me feel proud to be a blogger and made me think again about how I blog, what excites me.

Selena is hoping to organise another meet up in January or February and I, for one, can't wait!!! Thank you Selena for organising this event and to all the other bloggers I met ... it was great chatting to you - I have learnt so much.

If you would like to have a read of the Afternoon Tea bloggers' blogs ... here they are. Enjoy!