{BritMumsLive 2014}

I'm late in the day with my BritMumsLive 2014 round up as I've been swamped at work with my day job and then I've also been away for a few days at the weekend.

Better late than never though!

We left at silly o'clock on Friday morning to catch our train to London and the train seemed to take forever!!! (It was 6 hours!). 

On the train - clearly very excited!!

Bacon roll for breakfast with a hot chocolate from Gordon St Coffee at Central Station Glasgow. Not the best bacon roll I've ever had (Cafe Citron in Blackhall, Edinburgh gets that award!) but it was still absolutely amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A proper cup of boiling hot tea - thank you Yorkshire Tea - 'let's have a proper brew'!

R & I were staying at the Apex London Wall Hotel and we managed to check in and drop off our bags prior to heading along to The Brewery for registration for BritMumsLive 2014. Eek!! I was super nervous!

R gave me a wee push into the courtyard and said he'd see me later that evening. Taking the first step into the crowds was nerve wracking and I'm glad that he took me along to the venue as otherwise I'd have been properly stressing. I didn't see anyone that I recognised and thankfully the doors quickly opened so we could go and register. What wasn't great was that it took me forever to find my badge, but I got it eventually.

Once through the security, I clocked Kate Sutton from Wit Wit Woo who is easily recognisable from her gorgeous red hair and she showed me the ropes pointing me in the direction of the brands. Thank you Kate :-)

I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the brands that had stands. I had expected it to be bigger and better. Please don't hit me, but I wanted to be honest! It's rare that I get to travel to London for blogger events and I had thought that this would be an opportunity for me to start to forge relationships with some of the brands that I may not get the chance to meet in person whilst in Glasgow. There were a lot of competitions which I hadn't anticipated, mainly from holiday companies (I've been to huge expositions with my day job which were very different) and I also didn't recognise many of the brands.

What was amazing was to meet some of the bloggers that I interact with on Twitter and Instagram. Highlights include Kate on Thin Ice (it was lovely to meet Kate in person and say Hello albeit brief) and Morgana from But Why Mummy Why.

I also made some new friends too: Nat from Style Me Sunday, Sharon from Honesty and Humour, Jenny from Let's Talk Mommy, Sarah from Toby Goes Bananas and Life with Munchers.

Anyway, on the Friday night I managed to navigate the London underground to meet R and his friend for some food and drinks. We even did a bit of dancing!!

Bite to eat at Jamie's Diner on the way home!

Day 2 and I'm sporting my Glasgow Mummy t-shirt

It was difficult to figure out from the short description which sessions to attend and I think I ended up making some wrong choices. I went to the Hands On Video Session, but felt it was too basic for me (I already know quite a bit about lighting from the photography night classes I've attended) and I'm not sure if I learnt as much as I thought I would from the Writing a Pitch session. The Google+ talk was brilliant as this is totally new to me, and the Bloggers' Keynote had me in tears. It was a tough day for me as it was the anniversary of my mum's death so I had that on my mind, plus my kids were on their first holiday abroad with their dad which also had me a tiny but anxious. Their first time on a plane too. This will have made me even more emotional that usual, hence all my blubbing! (May also have been due to the wine consumed at the wine tasting, see below!)

The Lindeman's wine tasting was excellent - my favourite was the Pinot Grigio

Cheers!

My T-shirt :-)

After a very hectic day, I touched up my make-up, threw on my dress and heels and headed out with R for dinner and cocktails.

Hoxley and Porter was decked out like a train carriage - very cool! 

On Sunday we headed to Camden Town for a browse and some lunch before catching the train back to Glasgow. Here are some more of the pics:

Brilliant!!

We struggled to choose with all the food options available at Camden Market, but ended up going with some noodles and chicken from a Chinese food stand.

Love this paper cup 'Hey there hot stuff' ;-)

London was brilliant but tiring. I've got loads to consider for my little pink pages here and perhaps there will be some changes coming up. Lot's to do, just wish I had more time to do it in!!

Thanks again to Glasgow Fort for sponsoring me.