Jumping straight back where I left off in my last memories post, talking about Halloween, which I celebrated on the very first weekend of November with Claire and Ameera. We went to Brighton, as has become tradition for us over the years, Claire had booked an apartment for us to stay in and drove us up as part of our birthday present and we had pre-booked our make up for the day as well.
I decided that I wanted to reuse my Ariel costume from my 30th birthday party but with the horror element for Halloween I went for a dead mermaid. I had half my face made up like a pretty mermaid and the other was scales like the skin had been pulled back, with blood and severed skin separating the two.
Ameera went as a skeleton and Claire was a prisoner who had a bleeding throat from an accident in prison. We had pre drinks at the apartment before going to Walkabout who were throwing a Day Of The Dead themed event, although I’m sure we were one of about four groups that were actually in fancy dress but we love it so who cares.
Although I had very much taken a break from Glam Glitz Gloss over the past few months, I was still attending occasional events, especially travel ones as I had now firmly decided that in 2020 I would be going down this road, and Char told me about WTM London that was being held at Excel Centre.
WTM London is an international travel trade show which connects buyers and influencers with brands and destinations. I was warned it’s very overwhelming as it’s an extremely big exhibition style event running over three days, I attended the first day with Char and then we rode the Emirates Air Line to the O2 for dinner, which I absolutely never want to go on again as I was terrifying for most of the journey.
I was invited to a blogger’s lunch on the third day with the Greek National Tourism Organisation where I ran into Kirsty and she introduced me to some other travel bloggers in attendance. I met a number of representatives for brands in the UK and built some relationships on behalf of The Live Review and I had the chance to speak some reps for overseas exhibitors and see what they look for when collaborating with bloggers.
Although I had left my job in October I didn’t have my leaving do until a few weeks later due to a run of busy weekends, but I had a lovely evening having drinks and catching up with not only the friends still working for Debenhams but also a couple that had also left but I’d kept in touch with.
I got to have another catch up with old friends when Bex had a last-minute space come up on escape room she was reviewing, and so I got to see her and Sarah who I met through blogging years ago. It was called Trapped In A Prison Van and we got to come up with our back stories before being handcuffed and locked into cells on board the van. It was a really unique experience and we had a lot of fun, working well enough together to escape within the time limit.
It was quite the month for fun events with the next one being Moonpig’s Christmas event that Lauren took me to and I got to see Hannah and Haydy who were also there, as well as meet some new bloggers. We got to make cocktails, which was a bit of a competition and I definitely frightened my team with my competitive nature, then we took photos with Santa and make some festival floral arrangements. On the weekend I went to the Blogosphere Festival with Sammy where I overindulged in Krispy Kreme’s and attended some interesting talks whilst networking with other bloggers.
Following the festival, I went to meet Jessie, Charli and her daughter in Wembley for dinner before we went to see Disney On Ice. As four very big Disney fans you can only imagine our surprise and delight when we arrived to find out that we were sitting front row and we sang our little hearts out throughout the show.
I had my first collaboration off the back of WTM London and was invited to try out the new menu at Bills Restaurant, so I took it as the chance to have dinner with Hannah. The following day I went to a Manifestation event that Chloe was hosting, which Vix was on the panel for, and I got a little refresh on the subject of manifestation which I hadn’t had as much time for recently.
My final bit of fun for the month of November was attending a Christmas party thrown by one of the PRs I’d worked with throughout the year with The Live Review. It was attended by other media contacts as well as the acts that they represented including Shakin Stevens, and let’s just say that the drinks were flowing to the point that I missed the final train home and thought it was a great idea to get a cab home which was not a delight to wake up to the price of alongside the hangover, although the handbag full of Quality Street did help stem the pain.
The hangover was definitely worth it though as I had such a fun night, I didn’t even know I could still party till the early hours or drink that much anymore as it’s been a while since I have. I met some lovely people, heard some great stories like what it was like to be the opening act for Westlife’s tour and met a hilarious pair who adopted me for most of the evening and had me in hysterics throughout. What a way to finish the month!
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