The Gallery My Weekend

That cow rug is famous. It was once on the set of CITV, but that's not the point of this hazy, non-technically brilliant photo (the like of which Tara celebrated in her speech at Cybermummy 11). That's my brother's knee, his girlfriend's elbow and the beautifully hazy afternoon we spent on their famous rug, devouring a BBQ, on London Fields, this Sunday.  For me it was a weekend about reflection.

I reflected on Cybermummy 11,  which I attended on Saturday thanks to Netmums.  I had a fabulous time meeting so many wonderful people. I loved the idea that 2D online friendships became 3D. The conference gave me a bigger picture of blogging (a proper Cybermummy 11 post is coming shortly). 

But it was so huge, so jam packed with people and information. I woke up in the Hoxton hotel with an urge to be back in my offline life, just so I could process things. Fortunately my brother and his girlfriend live round the corner.  All I could manage on Sunday was to lie on this rug in London Fields, and be grateful I had one more day to just lounge.  The sun was shining, and in this oasis in the city, only the birds were tweeting.

We reflected on London, the city I left when I was 7 months pregnant, after living there for five years. It is full of the ghosts of my child free days, and somehow whenever I return, they always haunt me. 

A friend of my brother's joined us, he told me that a million people come and go from London each year. I was one of them. Those comings and goings that keep London alive but also make it so transient and fragmented.

We reflected on loss. My brother's girlfriend's mum was with us, and had lost her partner recently.  My brother and I lost our mum in January.  Everyone on that rug had recent bereavement in common. 

We reflected on getting older, I told my younger brother the Hoxton bar crowd were trendy. 


'Did it make you feel old?' he asked.


 'A little,' I said, 'like someone's mum'. 


'They make me feel old sometimes too,' he laughed, trying to make me feel better.

So all in all, it may take me a few days to acclimatise from this weekend.

Tara may kill me for this, but here is video footage of what Tara was up to in the Blogger to Blogger inspiration session. It was really lovely to hear her speak about the 'virtual' gallery she so tirelessly curates.  Click on the lenscup to visit.