mega buzz

 

I IZ LIKEZ Super Swarm & Londonist

 

…well, that is what I think the name of the next badge up from Super Swarm on Foursquare should be.

And that is where I went last night – to the first Super Swarm event organised in the UK, for Foursquare users to get their coveted badges. I actually got my Swarm badge when I went to Field Day – and was so excited about it that I mentioned it in my blog back then. Swarm is for when you get 50+ people checked in to the same place. Superswarm is when you get 250+ and obviously takes some organising.

And very nicely organised it was too. Held at Jewel Piccadilly, not only did we get our Super Swarm badges via Foursquare and the opportunity to mingle with some lovely people new and old (new and old to me, not literally new and old…although I remember seeing a baby there, and there were a couple of fogey-looking types…) but Jewel also provided us with a free (rather cucumbery) cocktail each, which was perfectly acceptable and became decidedly nicer after a couple (find friends that don’t like the free drinks at these things and steal their tokens…) and we also got a REAL Super Swarm badge, and a badge from those lovely Londonist people who helped organise it.

I always get lost around Piccadilly Circus – I never remember which road is which, so I had walked in almost a complete circle (duh!) before I spotted the bar. I needed to fiddle with my bo0ts, so dropped my bag on the pavement and bent down and some guy walked over, grabbed my bag and said “You shouldn’t let go of your bag…” at which I sprung up and was ready to punch them. Luckily it was my mate, the gorgeous @kevplugz who I hadn’t seen since, ooo, at least Saturday 😀 and I think I maybe scared him more than he had me as I really WOULD have knocked someone out if they tried to nick my bag!

But I like being able to go into places with a bit of arm-candy, so it worked out well. We queued briefly to get in, and when I checked in on Foursquare, I got my ‘Player Please!’ badge, which is apparently when you check in with 3 members of the opposite sex…bonus!

The girl on the door asked if I was for the Super Swarm and then asked if I’d come far. “Yes, Camden” I replied, and she thanked me for making such a long journey. “I still got lost!” I told her.

It was great to see @adonisdemon and @jonchoo and FINALLY get to meet the legendary @BernieJMitchell in person! Just a shame I missed the apparently now-hippyish @dan_bowsher 😉

As me and Lorna were by then accepting our total geekiness, we decided to gatecrash a friend’s geekfest that he’d organised that was going on at the Tattershall Castle, as that way we would also be able to get our ‘I’m on a boat!’ Foursquare badge too! (Lee/Lena/Jo, if you’re still reading by this point, yes! That IS where I had my Divorce Party back in 1998…although thinking about it, there is no way Jo would remember that…)

I had a brilliant evening, met some lovely people, had some free drinks and felt great when I came home.

AND….I slept all night, and I don’t feel like crap today. Life is sweet xxx

Photos of the event by Paul Clarke (Yes, I am in this pic somewhere!)

pushing the shy girl below the surface

I’m going to a ‘thing’ tonight.  It’s a meet-up of London bloggers.  Now I know that I’ve only just started blogging again, but I’ve been doing it on and off for years, and I find bloggers just goddamn interesting (although I’m a very ‘scratch the surface’ kind of gal, and bore easily, so very in-depth blogs about specific subjects bore me – I prefer just being nosey about people’s lives!)

But I’m shy.  I really really am shy.  I’m fine in a group of people I know, but my heart goes ten to the dozen (that’s a stupid phrase…what does it even mean?) when I have to meet new people.  I try not to let it get to me, and not to stop me from doing things, but it really does fill me with apprehension.  So I have been feeling sick all day knowing that I’m pushing myself to go and do this tonight.  which I know is stupid, and I know that people who know me find hard to understand, but i have to go through every single time I do something new.  I’ve puked twice already!

On a totally different note – The Girl is still doing her blog, and her entry yesterday made me laugh so much (she shows me all of her posts anyway) that I asked if I could show my friends, which she said “Yes!”, so here it is (just as a not, Afia is a really nasty piece of work girl in her class who has caused The Girl all sorts of misery for the past couple of years) :

The best day ever invented was probably today because… MAYBE BECAUSE MY BFF SARA IS NOW MY PERMANENT FRIEND EVER!!! Yes she is. she called my arch enemy afia a big fat ugly…TOAD!!! It was the funniest thing to see afia actually looking like a toad all goggled eyes and wide open mouth. so that was the highlight of my day.

I love her.

back to life, back to reality

Jazzy B was gutted that he'd forgotten his briefcase for his Alistair Darling impression

The last few weeks have been really odd.  Not going into the office, not getting much work at all, The Girl not around, The Girl  not at school when she came back, and then all of us stuck indoors cos of the snow.  Add on to that seeing family, catching up with friends, presents, theatre, me and The Man getting colds, the whole Christmas and New Year thing and the lack of decent TV it’s been a very strange time.

So I’m actually really looking forward to going back into work tomorrow.  I DO so like a bit of routine.  Not TOO much routine, but enough to make me feel comfortable.  I miss having a decent amount of work to really get my teeth into.  This year is going to be a busy one and I’m looking forward to it!

The Girl is SO happy that she’ll be able to go to school tomorrow.  She’s only had half a day back, and there were only 7 of her class in (lazy buggers!).  The Girl loves school.  I have forced that into her by making her life such a misery at home that she’s just ecstatic to be away from me!  😀

I’ve actually got a busy week this week, not only have I got to get used to doing a full day’s work every day for a whole week (eek!!  the trauma!!) but I’ve also got my work’s christmas do (we decided to have it late – cheaper, so we can aford more booze!) AND I’ve decided to go to the London blog meet up that chopandcut suggested to me.  This is the first step in my determined effort to be more sociable this year that I mentioned last week.   I am dead dead nervous, and probably wont speak to anyone but hell, it’s a start!!

a twitter here and a twitter there

Twitter - it's not just for birds

So I have now been using Twitter since April.  I originally signed up for it to get Tweets from the Treasury during the budget for work (yes, I know that is probably just about the geekiest possible reason to join Twitter).

Anyway – I set up an account for myself, and shortly after, I set up an account for work.  I must admit, I use the work one every day and have found an absolute heap of interesting people, and so much useful information for my job that it has proven completely invaluable!

However, I have always found it really hard to get to grips with on a personal basis.  I don’t see it as an easy way of interacting with my friends – Facebook is FAR more user-friendly for that kind of thing, and I’ve never really been much of a ‘celeb-follower’.  BUT, recently I’ve found a great use for it – getting free stuff!!

I have never been the kind of person who seems to win things a lot, but in the last month, through Twitter, I have managed to get a Cooking Mama 3 DS Case (for my daughter who loves CM, and didn’t know she was getting it for Xmas) – made a great Xmas pressie.  I have also got a cookbook, a keyring, a review copy of a book that isn’t in the shops yet and am waiting for another book to come through.  i’m loving it.

So, to conclude:  Twitter – it’s great for work and free stuff!  🙂