I'm a Gurgle Girl!

After I had been nominated for a Gurgle for Best Funny Mummy Blog I kept in touch with Gurgle, reading blog posts every now and then and reading Tweets here and there, but had a lovely surprise when they wrote to me via email asking if I would be interested in becoming a Gurgle Girl, if I was up for the challenge!

I did think this was a great opportunity and I don't tend to back down from too many challenges so I accepted and you can read all about the rest of us Gurgle Girls (I'm not the only one!) on the post at Gurgle.com.

And because I know that you are all as nosey as me, and possibly as lazy here is a nice list of everyone that is involved in the Gurgle Girl Project at the minute. I am sure that you will see that there are plenty of people that you already know and maybe a few new friends too.

Leanne from Second Time Mum
Pippa from A Mothers Ramblings (That's me!)
Emily from Baby Rambles
Hoi-Tse from Tea with one sugar Please
Hazel from Hot Cross Mum
Holly from It's a Mummy's Life
Erin from Jolly Old England
Laura from Are we nearly there yet mummy
Peggy from Perfectly happy Mum
Jen from The Madhouse

If you want to join in the fun on Twitter, then use take a look at the hash tag #gurglegirls and if I get any incriminating photos of the rest of the gang as and when we meet up, then I will make sure that I let you all see them first!

A Magic Package, two bars of chocolate and nobody is pregnant

Over the last few days the doorbell has hardly stopped ringing with deliveries of one sort or another and yet even though the packages are addressed to me they were all for Baby Boy and Top Ender. I was starting to think that nobody loved me as I hadn't even had any junk mail or even the dreaded bills!

Then came the magic package with my name on it. A magic package that made me excited because it was for me and me only. So excited that after having opened it I tweeted;

I got a lot of guesses, 54 guesses (I miscounted when I said 53 on Twitter). And out of all of them only one hit the nail on the head.

Congratulations Kate, a bar of chocolate will be on its way to you this weekend! The best answer was from Laura who sent two very quick tweets, but I ended up deciding that the hash tag #pleasecanihavesomechocolate really did deserve a reward!

The reason I was so excited was because the magic package that I had opened contained my dress and new undies that I am going to wear to The MADs!

A few weeks back I started talking with Simply Yours, about underwear to wear to The MADs and they very kindly agreed to send me not only a fab bra for the event and some for everyday wear, but also a dress from sister site Simply Be.

I was looking at the fantastic pages and pages of dresses and underwear and started enlisting help in the form of family and friends and ended up choosing what I think is a beautiful dress. Now I know that you want to see the dress, but I want to keep it a bit of a surprise for a bit longer and so I have written a blog post and scheduled it to post just as the MADs awards starts... so come back on the evening of the 13th September to see a picture of me in my dress!

What I am doing this Saturday

On Saturday morning I am going to be getting up at stupid o'clock to travel down to London to mix and mingle with 200 plus people, and listen to some of them, and eat food that some of them are bringing (I have heard rumours of flapjacks, brownies and cupcakes). Oh and to swap business cards with them.

This is the back of my business cards

Thankfully Huggies are shouting me breakfast before the conference starts and I will get to meet up with the other Huggies Mums again which will be really nice and I won't feel a complete loner as I will know eight other delegates at least! If you are coming to CyberMummy make sure you stop by and speak with Huggies at their stand!

Of course I will be live blogging whilst I am there, I am offically covering two Cyber Labs, but I will tweet from a few of the other sessions so if you want to see what I think of the sessions make sure you are following me on Twitter, I am @PippaD in case you don't know!
After the conference part of CyberMummy is over there is a quiz that Linda is hosting in the bar. I have been swotting up on as much as I can, because there are prizes at stake!

When all the fun is over (or at least nearly over) I am going over to the Gurgle Blog Awards, which are being held at a Swanky Soho Hotel. I know, two hotels in one day! Eight bloggers (me and seven others, obviously!) have been shortlisted in the Funny Mummy Blog Category and I am really excited about having been mentioned along side blogs that I read!

Well I read them all now. Its not my fault that I had never heard of one of the blogs before...

So if you fancy a laugh then pop on over to these blogs and make sure that you giggle a bit at them all, tell them that I sent you and then come back and tell me you still think I am funny compared to them.

http://www.jobeaufoix.com/
http://clareybabble.blogspot.com/
http://youngandyounger.blogspot.com/
http://babyrambles.blogspot.com/
http://www.dulwichmum.net/
http://hotcrossmum.blogspot.com/
http://londoncitymum.blogspot.com/

My task today is to work out how to get funnier than them and failing that bribe the judges to vote for me. Now where did I put those photoshopped images?

Top Ender Giggles - Sign of the times.

Daddy was sitting on the sofa next to Top Ender when he asked if I had heard a news story about a group of teenagers who had been told accidentally they wouldn't do well in their GCSE's with some ranking thrown in about them for good measure.

"Some of the students had been quite upset about the news and a few of them fled home in tears" said Daddy
"Where they all went straight on to Twitter and tweeted about it" said Top Ender.

They probably did too.

Making Friends Sucks - Part Three

I did something the other morning that I haven't done since I was a grown up. I went round to someones house after school.

Last week you see Chatty Mum invited herself round after Playgroup. The house was a tip, but I agreed because, well I like Chatty Mum.

This week she invited us all round to hers. There were three of us that ended up going, all chatting together and having a giggle, talking about decorating and real life Jeremy Kyle stories and children's toys and goodness knows what else.

It was only later that I realised that what I had just done would be the mark of a friendship. I mean you don't invite strangers into your home (well other than to read the Gas or Electric meters) and you don't swap stories about your life with someone you don't trust in some way.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

There is a rainbow in this picture... honest!

Making Friends Sucks - Part Two

Now those of you who know me in "real life" are going to be divided into two camps over this post. The first lot of you are going to have one of those "aha" moments about me and the other half of you are never going to believe it.

I'm shy.

When I posted last week about how Making Friends Sucks, I didn't really talk about the friends I do have or why I have more online friends than "real life" friends, but the true answer is because I am shy.

If you do know me in real life you will know me as a quite bubbly character, who either never shuts up or who is a bit of a comedian. I admit that these characteristics don't exactly scream shy, but this is because it is a persona. This is the kind of person that I want to be and so I have created a front that is this person.

Its easier with Online friends. For a start they are a lot easier to come by, there isn't always somewhere where you can find someone to talk to who will have something in common with you.

Even if your hobby is knitting in the nude, there is bound to be a chatroom out of the 33,900,000 results for chatrooms in Google Search that caters for you.

Anyway.

Online friends are easier to find. Easier to keep in touch with and in my opinion a lot harder to get rid of.

I should know. I married one of the friends I made online!

The Bacon Roll war of 2010... started by a single Tweet

On Sunday I had two bacon rolls for lunch. Daddy knows me well and put Brown sauce in one and Ketchup in the other. As I was sitting at the PC I tweeted;

"I can never make my mind up, should Bacon sandwiches be accompanied with Brown sauce or Red sauce?"

This led to a lot of people tweeting about their personal preferences. Of course, there were some people who prefer Mustard, or no sauce, or just lashings of butter.

I then wanted to know;

"Okay going to really change things in the bacon roll debate... Soft roll or crunchy roll or sandwich bread?"

Which prompted a second barrage of tweets about soft rolls, sandwich bread, crusty rolls and if 20SomethingMum should get out of the bath to go and get something to eat because the tweets about bacon rolls were making her hungry!

This got me thinking. There are so many different answers as to how people liked their bacon roll... what would be the most popular way and so I asked;

"Can eveyone send your suggestions to me about what sort of bacon sandwich you like, bread, sauce, additional items, crispy bacon etc"

And people Tweeted back.

These are some of the replies;

larainefan Bacon very very crispy,Spoonful of scrambled egg, don't care for eggs much.Mustard,cheese, white bread, tobasco sauce,blk pepper

scarie I like hickory rashers, white bread, little bit of butter , cut all fat off and heniz ketchup mmm

DavidWhe Pannini, Bacon, Brie, cranberry sauce - delicious!!

vwallop my perfect sarnie: toasted thinly sliced sourdough, butter , crispy fried smoked streaky, fried egg, edges crispy, yolk bit runny

Caroljs Fresh bread, butter, crispy but not burnt

maryrelihan mmmmmm bacon..tomato...onion and mustard.....or relish...massive

alithealien marinated in black treacle and soy sauce! yum!

SandyCalico In a freshly baked baguette with butter and brie - the diet option!

afoolishmortal breakfast: Crusty white bread, butter and red. Any other time: soft white roll, lettuce and mayo

bswain The works for me! Lol

Surprisedzoe I like avocado in mine.

chippy37 got to be Brown on a Baconroll unless an egg is involved then chilli sauce is nice :)

So the answer isn't simple. Everyone likes it different (I didn't mean that to sound quite so dirty) and of course there is further debate to this matter;

Stewpot Next question, what sort of plate to serve it on?

But I am not getting into that one!

Making Friends Sucks

Making friends sucks. No not a quote from Top Ender but from me.

I have never really been one to go off and make friends. As a child I tended to stick with those I was sat with on the school table and in later years managed to get away with not having many by claiming that I liked my own company better.

Really I just worried that people wouldn't like me and so would rather be on my own than not liked.

I try to make friends every once in a while. There are the Mums in the school playground who I can chat to about various bits and pieces, but they aren't the sort of friends that I could call on the phone and chat to. For a start I don't have their telephone numbers and stalking people is something Bear does, not me!

The playground Mums and I have mentioned in passing "Come for Coffee", and I have even arranged with someone that they come round, but they didn't as their little one was poorly. To tell you the truth I was probably more relieved than they were. I mean what would we talk about other than our kids?

On Tuesday one of the Playgroup Mums and I were walking out of school together as Playgroup wasn't on. We were a little disappointed and so I said to Chatty Mum;

"Well if you don't mind the mess you could come round to mine for a coffee?"

And I was ignored*.
I felt crushed. I had put myself out there and had been kicked back into place. I wasn't going to try and make friends again for a while.

And then I got a Direct Message on Twitter from Kassia at Working Mum. You see Kassia and I have worked out that we live about two miles from each other.

"Fancy meeting for a coffee when the roads are clear of snow?"

I replied back that it would be great... maybe making friends isn't so hard after all!

*By the way it turns out that Chatty Mum hadn't meant to ignore me (she stopped me that afternoon to make sure I knew that) it was just that she hadn't quite realised what I had said until she had got home. She's invited me round to hers for coffee to make up for it...