Chez Spud

I feel like an astronaut re-entering the earth’s atmosphere…or that the light is calling me, like it is for Polly and Blanca pictured above. Less airily, I’m coming down to earth with a huge bump…I’m still fizzing but the bubbles are rapidly going flat. The glums are descending and I feel lonely, a very rare feeling for me. I love my own company, pretty much more than I enjoy any one elses in fact. I need substantial chunks of time alone each day so this curious ‘lonely’ feeling is somewhat of a novelty. I haven’t felt like this since I was a teenager, when each holiday involved some  residential course or tour for the various choirs and orchestras I was involved with. I loved those intense few days or weeks when all we would do was eat and breath the music…with friendships formed fast and forever. Sometimes I would cry when the concert or tour was over, and would replay and relive it all in my head over and over while I waited for the nagging, empty feeling to pass. And that’s how I feel now, and I’m 38! I’m stunned and delighted, in equal measures, to learn that I am still capable of such intense connections at this stage in my life.

I can’t let go of Blog Camp, and yet I’m totally stumped in terms of what to write about. It’s tempting to let my photos do the talking but, in truth, I took very poor photos during our couple of days together. I think I was too distracted by all the conversation to really focus on photography. Also, I realised early on that I was never going to be able to capture the ‘essence’ of Blog Camp in photos so I kind of unplugged from my usual photography obsession. In the end, Blog Camp was all about the people and thus I present them, in no particular order:

Polly, who isn’t called Polly at all, who is funny, warm, kind and thoughtful and didn’t seem to mind that the rest of us couldn’t pronounce her real name. We talked about photography alot, I fear I lectured her (it’s a weakness of mine) and she didn’t even seem to mind when I inadvertently insulted her D40. Possibly presenting her with her own Grudge Book (my gift to all the girls) later in the day was a mistake. Perhaps I am the first entry? Hmmmm, ponders. She was exactly what I expected from her blog which is beautifully written, insightful and poetic…just like her xx

Lovely Blanca with the lovely Nikon glued to her face (oh, look! there’s Polly who isn’t Polly in the background with that totally AMAZING and BRILLIANT D40 glued to her face too). Blanca looks about 10 years younger than she actually is and sometime soon I will forgive her for that. She has an infectiousness, upbeat personality and is utterly charming. She is EXACTLY what I expected, her personality is written all over her pretty face. Best of all, she doesn’t mind being the butt of all our jokes…she’s so cool like that…

Giggle. That’s a house name she’s photographing by the way…’Laughing Waters’. We’re a funny bunch, the English…

AHA! Presenting Kristina who is seriously the cleverest person on the planet, but it took me a while to work that out because (a) I am stupid and (b) she is terribly unassuming about it. Kristina is my Big Regret from Blog Camp…I just didn’t get to talk to her enough, so I kidnapped her and forced her to ride with me in my Shit Picasso for our trip to Stonehenge yesterday. She literally knows everything. OK, that’s a ‘slight’ exaggeration but she certainly knows everything linguistics related and it was a fascinating discussion. If only I could have cornered her for longer. No matter, I will force myself upon her at Blog Camp 2.0 and bore her death then. I’m sure she can’t wait…;-)

Some bloke we picked up in the pub. He’s damaged for life now…look at the smug grin…filthy bugger…

Julocka ‘assuming the position’. I have about 200 photos of her in a similar pose from the weekend. Perhaps she’s shy? (queue wild laughter) She arrived with about 45 cameras and rarely was there a moment when one or other, sometimes two, weren’t strapped to her visage. Apparently she actually DOES have eyes, but I can’t confirm that as I’ve never seen them myself. I would have adored her except raging Lens Envy got the better of me so I must grudge her instead, such a shame…seems a pity that the small issue of a 60mm Nikkor micro lens should come between us. Best that she just hands it over don’t you agree? Yes I thought so too. Marvellous.

And finally our gorgeous and generous hostess Beth who, you read it here first, is actually a magician. She can turn this…

…into this…

…in the time it takes me to have a shower. And then nonchalantly serve it with homemade jam and marmalade. The woman is a GENIUS! And she’s smart, and funny, and sassy and wise and…um…totally not what I was expecting and I have a crush on her but don’t tell her. I had Beth ALL wrong. Her blog is very reflective, intellectual and calm. And she is all those things, and yet so many more. For some reason I had decided she would be like her namesake in Little Women (“docile and shy to a fault”), cringe. So wrong, embarrassingly wrong. Bad Spud, baaaaad. Thankfully I kept my gob shut for a change and managed not to blurt out my shameful assumptions, although I did sneak in a totally inadvertent insult without anyone but Julochka realising. And her lips are sealed…I’ve glued them together as a bond of friendship. She would thank me, if she could…

And that leaves just me. You know, I think I was not at all what people were anticipating. I think they expected/feared a crazy, whacky, ‘hilarious’, zany, laugh-a-minute Spud and they got just me. I talked about this with the victims that I kidnapped for the Shit Picasso ride to Stonehenge (Julochka and Kristina)…that I am much ‘calmer’ than people were expecting. Somehow my blog ‘personality’ was set by that 30 secrets which, in all honestly, just played to the more ‘extreme’ part of my personality. Since then I’ve settled down in to the more ‘normal’ me which, I hope, is a lot more palatable than the version the others might have expected. Either that or they were desperately disappointed!

Six people, five nationalities, five Nikon owners and one on the way, a little over 24 hours together and friends for life I’m sure. xx

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• The One Where the Blog Campers meet in London
• Saturday Snippets…what I learnt today
• Tea for two
• Blog Camp 3.0…let the fun begin
• Blog Camp 2.0…A Tale of Four Breakfasts