CyberMummy in Wellies.....with Lou The Techno-Twit

Whoaaaa! What a massivo adrenalin rush; Shropshire to London was a bit of a culture shock, [so many people.] I called my pal from the car on Friday night as I hurtled along the M4, pleased to see that the traffic jam was heading in the opposite direction, presumably towards the coast following an awesome weather forecast.

'I've got just 17 miles to go, through Hammersmith then Fulham,' I said innocently. 'Should be there in about 20 mins.'

80 minutes later I arrived. Good God I could have cried. Sort the traffic out someone! Boris! Boris!!! Are you listening?

I used to be a Londoner, I was born in St John's Wood and spent most of my working life based in the Capital but clearly I've become countrified.

I was up in London for Cybermummy11, a 12 hour blogging/networking conference. Jolly good idea to host it in the City as all the pin-striped City folk had vacated town for the weekend, leaving us blogtastic parentals in peace, (no doubt they were the ones stuck in the Friday queues on the M4......)

Saturday 8:30am - I had never seen such a powerful collective of mums (and a fair few dads too) gathered in one place, though I was gobsmacked that Apple weren't one of the sponsors of the event, being that most of the 400+.... (mumbles in case of Health and Safety regulations....) delegates had at least one Apple product strapped to them; an iPhone, iPad, iMac... I was utterly envious.

I had decided against lugging my laptop, (which weighs the same as a 1980s PC) but that put me at a disadvantage as, being a Tweet Deck gal, I'm more used to Twittering via computer. I couldn't remember how to twitter from my phone. When Sian stood to talk from the podium and asked everyone to Tweet about CyberMummy11 I was too embarrassed to ask for help so I faked it. Forgive ME! To be honest I rarely even answer my phone, as the Hubby and plenty of friends can testify to..... I'd rather be digging or writing..... or cooking. Texting, well that's fine, I can do texting (but not with my thumb, I'm not that good).... yes, I can text, when I can find my phone and it's charged....

I know I'm late on the CyberMummy post but I've been mulling about life the universe and everything. The event slightly shook me. For starters I wandered into the huge dark auditorium in order to find a seat at a table close to the front. Not wanting to be a complete Norman-no-mates I plonked down at a table and introduced myself. Yikes, seems as if I'd sat on the blogging royalty table ExpatMum, The Potty Diaries and notanottinghillmum to name just three. They were very kind and I'm pretty sure they didn't notice that I was wearing my clean-out-the-chickens wellies (soooo comfy.)

If I was to sum up what the conference did for me it would be this;

1. It knocked me down and
2. It picked me up, brushed me down and set me on my way.

Let me explain: I really didn't appreciate how many of us bloggers there were and bearing in mind that CyberMummy was just the tip of the iceberg, I felt like the tiniest weeniest fish in a bloody big ocean. However little by little by chatting to others and listening to the delegates I realised that we bloggers were a shoal and The Archers at The Larches was just one of the gang - quite a nice feeling really. That constituted the 'knock down and pick up' bit.

Next came the 'brushed down and set on my way' bit: The overwhelming message I kept hearing was 'be yourself - blog about that which you are passionate and you will be successful.'

The most inspirational speaker for me was Rachel Moore from talesfromthevillage. She seemed to be where I am headed and she spoke passionately and honestly about her writing and her life.

So, never mind the onslaught of free advice from friends and family suggesting blog posts, intervals between blog posts, marketing ideas and styles of writing.  I'm ignoring it all and going back to the reason I wrote the blog in the first place; to witter at will about my family, the house, the chickens, writing, reading and gardening....

....Welcome back to The Archers at The Larches....