I had a perfectly lovely evening at the bloggy folk social, and it felt very cosmopolitan swinging by for drinks and nibbles after work. Whenever I’m in London it feels a bit like country mouse is in town you know? Everyone seems very…together somehow. Like they live this very glamorous life and they all have people to see, places to be…like popping out for drinks and nibbles is normal on a school night before they all disperse to go be glamorous and interesting somewhere else.

So anyway, I didn’t know what to expect tonight…there had been no mention of food on the invite so I assumed there wouldn’t be any, and there wasn’t, not really…but there were two big bowls of cheesy wotsits alongside an assortment of other nibbles which, lets face it are cheese balls out of a different mould. I couldn’t tell you what the other nibbles were, I was too preoccupied with the cheese balls to notice.

It’s like the Gods of dieting just thought I know, let’s stick her in a room full of people who know she’s on a diet together with her biggest trigger food, and see if she manages to navigate a path to the cheese balls without anyone noticing…

By the time I’d had my third glass of red wine, I was feeling very relaxed indeed, and I could feel my defences crumbling, in fact I got so near the table at one point they were within touching distance. I joked with a few of the people I chatted to about the effect they were having on me, and they all laughed along and assumed I was kidding…you lot know better, right?

But I acted like a normal person. I had two cheese balls when someone was saying a few words, and nobody was looking at me, and then I walked away from the table. Just two. Then I sluiced the taste from my mouth with a big slug of red wine, and then started talking to two very nice chaps about blogging.

I did a normal person thing, even if my thoughts weren’t normal person thoughts. I was on my very best behaviour, even after three glasses of wine and I feel very happy about that. Mind you, I had to didn’t I…the room may as well have been filled with the diet police!  I imagine a collective gasp would have gone around the room like a mexican wave if I’d face planted into the bowl like I wanted to.

So anyway, I chatted to travel bloggers, and beauty bloggers, and food and drink bloggers. A car blogger, and a jazz blogger, some of the sponsors, and both of the judges who judged one of the categories that I’m shortlisted in…that was a bit weird. I mean, they were both so lovely, but they know everything about me, and we only met for the first time tonight. That took some getting used to you know? Funny how red wine takes the edge off though 🙂

I’m so glad I went. I survived the cheese balls, I stood up for 3 hours drinking and chatting without being preoccupied because some bit of me or other was hurting, and I met a bunch of interesting and lovely folk who I might never have known if not for this.

Yesterday was a good day 🙂

I’m doing a trek to Cuba in October, to raise money in memory of my dad. You can read his story HERE and I would be so grateful if you’d help me honour his memory by donating whatever you can afford so together we can make a difference and help other people who have been affected by mental illness. Thank you!

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