Chez Spud

Final thoughts on Blog Camp before I parcel up the rest of the memories for myself and pop them in to an easily accessible corner of my mind.

Whilst driving home it suddenly struck me that I had been the only Brit attending the BBC (Brit Blog Camp); Kristina is Swedish and lives in Sweden, Blanca is Spanish but lives in England, Polly who isn’t Polly is Polish and lives in England, Julochka is American but lives in Denmark and Bee is American but also lives in England. So it was only dull schmull me who is English and lives in England. Quelle boring! At least I will have the benefit of being ‘slightly’ exotic at Blog Camp 2.0 (or DBC..Danish Blog Camp?)

It was quite a revelation to be honest, I may even have cracked open the snacks to mark the moment (it was a long journey, I had to take my pleasures where I could get them). Clearly our diverse nationalities, one of the world’s greatest dividers (along with religion and the Barbie/Sindy issue), had been such a non ‘issue’ for our merry band that I’d entirely failed to notice it.

Why was that? Why was the single biggest ‘difference’ between us so invisible? Perhaps because everyone spoke excellent English (even the Americans, bless them)? Maybe we were all so consumed by the Love of Blog that we were too giddy to notice (not so, we hardly talked about blogging at all)? Did our Nikon Girls Group Smuggery get the better of us (very possibly)? I really don’t know the answer…all I can tell you is that we found the common ground and felt comfortable there, shared secrets and confidences, despite our diverse geographic and cultural backgrounds.

At this point it would be tempting to spin off in to some tedious diatribe about how World Peace could be achieved using Blog Camp as an inspiration (Ban Ki-Moon, listen in! Just get loads of Nikons for everyone, make some nice presents, go to the pub, gossip and…TA DA…WORLD PEACE!) but I’m not going there. That’s just a bit too worthy for a Tuesday evening, don’t you think? If it were Wednesday I would consider it.

I just want to know how we found our common ground, so quickly and effortlessly. I’ve wondered whether we all ‘shaved’ bits off our personalities, curbed the ‘extremes’ of our nationalities. I can’t answer for the others, of course, but I don’t think I did. I often tone down my sarcastic sense of humour when among People From Foreign, and speak more slowly and cut out obvious cultural references and idioms … but I don’t think I did for Blog Camp, for whatever reason. I was just me and, I hope, they were just them and it happened to gel.

They went home knowing what ‘chavs’, ‘pikeys’ and ‘grockles’ are…I went home knowing what ‘funk’ and ‘smack’ means in different ways that I knew before. We are all better people because of it I’m sure. More importantly, I went home knowing that IKEA isn’t a random brand name…it actually stands for something. Oh, life enrichment how I embrace thee! Also, us Brits pronounce Ikea all wrong. Even Julochka (an American) says it right, tush and fie.

I don’t have the answer, I don’t think there is one. I’m still slightly awed by our weekend together which, looking back, felt like suspended reality. All I know is that we found our common ground and, having photographed it 2,478,321 times, we loved it. And we want to go back.

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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

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“Feeling fizzy”…that’s how us tired but happy Blog Camp 1.5 girls described ourselves this morning over breakfast; a kind of energetic bubbling up of excitement and giddyness at our blossoming friendships. We all went to bed very very late, but no one could sleep at first because of the ‘fizzy’ feeling. Our lovely hostess Beth, astonishingly eloquent for rather early in the morning, described it so elegantly as being that rare emotion that a few, select girlfriends can inspire, almost akin to ‘romantic love’ if you like. She explained it so perfectly, but ‘fizzy’ is a good summary of what it feels like. If we could bottle it and sell it we’d be millionaires!

I’m too zonked to write with any thought plus I’m still ‘processing’ the weekend through my mind and waiting for something insightful to drop out the other end.  We talked about everything, we photographed everything, we ate, we drank, we went on a trip, some of us were 2 hours late arriving and got lost on the way despite being the only native Brit attending, there were laughs, and debate, there was teasing, some people put their foot in it but the others were too kind to make a big deal of it (phew), there were presents galore and a lot of this:

But mostly we just felt fizzy. And we liked it! And we want some more of it! And we wouldn’t mind another round of those fizzy Kir Royales (pictured above) knocked up by Beth’s super husband. Cheers!

Oh, and it turns out that the ‘Group Jump’ shot hasn’t improved since Blog Camp 1.0. Shabby…very, very…shabby.

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Oooooh so many thoughts and emotions. Mostly excitement because what could be finer than rocking up at a random stranger’s pad to spend the weekend with, um, a whole load of randoms from the interweb? Hoorah. Seriously, I’ve NEVER been disappointed by my many, many ‘real life’ encounters with people I initially met on the internet. I understand why many people feel anxious about taking the next step and meeting internet buddies for real…but my personal experience has been nothing but fabulous.

Think about it…these are people you have generally conversed with online for weeks if not months, or more. You share things you are often not comfortable sharing with ‘real life’ friends, for whatever reason. You’ve bonded, you’ve checked them out, you’ve bantered, you’ve giggled, you’ve shared stuff…and you already have the mutual interest that brought you together in the first place; it could be online dating (MrSpud, that’s you)…pregnancy/childbirth/hideous early days of motherhood and beyond (BFF and the ‘wife‘, that’s you)…and now bloggy peeps, or bleeps (that’s all of you reading this). When I think about my friends, I no longer differentiate between ‘real’ friends and internet friends, many of whom (perhaps 100 or so) I’ve never actually met. Means nothing to me – we don’t have to meet to be buddies.

But tomorrow I get to meet some of those interweb weirdies and I can’t wait. I’ve been packed for weeks…but today I made the final preparations. I finished up my crap gifts (pictured above) and wished I was capable of making something other than trouble; I packed the boot of the Shit Picasso (ek, I hate that car) with wine, gifts for bleeps, gifts for our hostesss, my dressing up box, a couple of axes for late night murdering in beds, spare liver, Blog Camp T shirt, stain remover to erase any blood splats from late night murderous activites, camera and entire lens stash for the Nikon gals (WE ROCK!), GPS, map and Grudge Book. I’m all set.

Hopefully there will be live blogging from the Camp (tequila permitting). If you don’t hear from me by Monday then they raided my axe stash and got me first. BUT REMEMBER GIRLS…I GRUDGE YOU FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE….

They don’t call me Scary Spud for nothing you know.

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Famille Spud is confined to barracks – we have swine flu. Bawl. Not badly, let’s hope it stays that way. But since we are housebound I thought I’d pass the time by packing for Blog Camps 1.5 and 2.0 (I know, greedy..TWO Blog Camps). A little ahead of time, I realise, but a girl can’t be too organised.

Here are my boys‘ Trunkis which I think are the perfect size for the trip. One for essentials, the other I will take empty and then snaffle a couple of friends to take home with me.  I don’t have any many local buddies and at this point my options seem to be (a) knit my own or (b) steal some. Well, I’m not at all crafty (so don’t be expecting any of that crochet nonsense from me, I ‘might’ manage finger knitting?) so (b) it is.  The case is kind of small. Must remember to take axe to dismember Blog Camp attendees so I can squish them in my Trunki and then reassemble Chez Spud. Ta da!

Inside one I’ve packed all the essentials:

1. Blog Camp T shirt
2. Standard issue Converse
3. Entire lens/camera stash
4. Bottle of white wine (for the journey – will send 10 cases ahead. Each)
5. Dressing up kit
6. Wig (just in case)
7. MacBook
8. Passport
9. iphone (for non stop Tweeting)
10. Grudge Book (never leave home without it)
11. Stones for Julochka in case she needs a fix. They are special ones. From my driveway.

Still to be packed:

1. Spare liver
2. Funnies
3. Bleep Revision Notes (so I don’t boob and call everyone by the wrong name)

On the final point, I am aware that I am a Woman of Mystery due to my penchant for dressing up. I don’t want my fellow BC victims attendees to worry about which one I am. So I had my name printed on my Blog Camp T shirt. Thoughtful huh? So, ladies, when you spot the bearded, googly eyed, blonde swishy wig, habit wearing one…you’ll know it’s me.

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