Wednesday 20 November 2013

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Bosnia by Instagram

In October, I travelled through Bosnia with the crew at Balkan Road Trip on their 7 day Bosnia Adventure trip.

I have plenty of stories to share from my time in this most brilliant country (many will be published on my work blog), but thought a good place to start would be with the little bits and pieces I collected on the road and originally shared through Instagram.

NOTE: My camera phone images really don't do it justice.


Monday 11 November 2013

#LDNBloggerTea: Mercer Street Hotel

On a wet and grey Saturday I found myself in London's West End off to meet with 19 women, 17 of which I had never met before.

The reason for this get together - a London Bloggers Afternoon Tea at the Mercer Street Hotel.

Kicking things off with a glass of champagne, introductions were made and names were finally placed with Twitter handles and blog titles.

Then it was on to the food.

One thing I have learned from my various afternoon tea experiences is that size is well and truly deceiving when it comes to those mini-sandwiches, cute cakes and scones - they're surprisingly filling - and the afternoon tea at Mercer Street Hotel was no different.

We were served a slight variation on the typical savoury afternoon tea fare - in place of sandwiches were chicken and pork baps,and salmon and vegetarian wraps - and the sweets certainly hit the spot. I will dream of the gooey caramel brownie.





Aside from catching up with my fellow kiwis Kelly and Emma it was wonderful to meet MandySarah, Gina and Sarah (the Texan variety) for the first time.

Sadly, there were many other faces I didn't get to chat with so I look forward to the next event.

I can't thank Selena and the ladies from AfternoonTea.co.uk for putting all this together. You are stars!



Friday 8 November 2013

Bloggers Afternoon Tea in London

While blogging in itself is a lonely activity it does have some unexpected social benefits.

London can be a lonely place - especially when your friends leave you thanks to expired Youth Mobility Visas - but blogging and Tweeting helps make the city feel smaller as you connect with a random collection of souls online from across this fair land.

Tomorrow I shall meet a selection of these people in person - many for the first time.

The wonderful Selena from Oh, the place we will go! Has organised a Bloggers Afternoon Tea at the Mercer Street Hotel, Covent Garden - I love these organising types who make things happen.


My delightful companions will be...


Gina from Sweet Serenity

Mandy from Emm in London
Erin from Erin Out and About
Sarah from The Wanderblogger
Bonnie from A Compass Rose
Tina from Girl Meets Globe
Jacintha from Urban Pixxels
Anna from Eat, See, Do 
Janelle from The Halfpenny Diaries
Shobha from NYLon Living
Annie at Sew Graceful
Melanie from Melanie Fontaine
Samantha from To the Days Like This

Can't wait!

Thursday 7 November 2013

Confessions of an Editorial Assistant: Some Memorable Callers

It was 2006 and I, a very young 22-year-old university graduate, was responsible for answering all the calls to the newsdesk of New Zealand's largest newspaper.

The majority of the calls were news tips, complaints, people wanting a chat with the editor (politely directed to send a letter), and subscribers whose papers did arrive (politely put through to subs).

But every now and then I was on the receiving end of some rather more special calls. They shall be known as Nice Young Man, Kobe Beef Man, Microwave Lady, Microchip Guy, and Shouty Jerk.

Nice Young Man: I found out from another member of staff that Nice Young Man had Down's. He was a treat to talk to. NYM would ring every few weeks for a quick chat. Always impeccably polite, he just want to say how much the woman on breakfast tv looked lovely and maybe comment on a few stories before wishing me a good day. Why weren't more callers like him. 

Kobe Beef Man: A NZ farmer breeding wagyu cattle, he wanted to tell the country all about the benefits of this pricey meat. By the sound of his voice he was an older gentleman and by the way he spoke non-stop for 30 minutes the first time I spoke to him, seemingly without time to take a breath, suggested he wasn't calling for a discussion. He rang several times, each with the same long winded spiel. I quickly learned how to interrupt someone mid-rant.

Microwave Lady: She was quite a simple case. Several calls about how microwaves in the air were affecting her thoughts.

Microchip Guy: His calls always upset me as he clearly was a disturbed individual. He wanted to know why the Herald wasn't writing about him and the fact that director Peter Jackson and then prime minister Helen Clark had placed microchips in his fillings and were making a Truman Show-like movie about his life against his will. Most of the time he was calm, but sometimes he would get really upset.

Shouty Jerk: "Page three. Second story. Fifth paragraph. What's wrong with that sentence? You idiots have written 'a' instead of 'an'." Queue a barrage of insults, how shit the paper was, swear words and so on.
I really hated Shouty Jerk. He rang frequently, never a hello, how's your day, every call started with him shouting a page number down the phone at me. He tested my patience time after time until one day he heard an attitude in my voice (I wonder why) and demanded to speak to my boss. Thankfully my Chief wasn't going to take crap from an abusive douche like him and totally put the loser in his place. Result. 

Finally, one caller who I remember more often than the other. I don't have a nickname for him. 


He only rang once. 

From the beginning of the call he sounded horribly distressed, warning of a destruction that was coming to kill hundreds of people across the country that he was controlling. 

As he got more and more worked up I managed to get his address and phone number and instantly emailed his local mental health service - could they send someone to check on him and make sure he was okay? 

A representative from the mental health group called me back and asked for more detail. The rep kept asking the same questions over and over and I remember feeling frustrated and helpless - I'd never spoken to someone that manic before and was genuinely worried he would harm himself. I didn't want to do nothing. 

They left it at that and I never found out if they paid that poor man a visit or not.