Yes that name badge has been altered to say “Sexual being”. That is what happens when you let Annie near your name badge with a biro.
It was Sunday morning at about 11.30 that it hit me. That I realised I had me a bad case of the post Britmums Blues.
We had gone to TK Maxx to spend the gift card they had put in the goodie bag we received at the end of BritmumsLive. Mr B hadn’t been to TK Maxx before and after I went last week to review it, and had raved ever since, we decided to brave Farnborough Gate on a Sunday morning for him to nose around.
Costa was first as we hadn’t been very organised and had left the house without even having a cup of tea. I still had some “Pop Money” (Mr B likes to know I have enough money to have a good time when I go to Britmums so gives me money for pop) left over so decided to treat him to a toasted sandwich too. You know, really push the boat out and blow £12 on a breakfast.
So I stood and waited to one side of the queue as our sandwiches were cooked.
I looked at people in the queue. I smiled at them. They didn’t smile back.
I looked at people sitting eating their breakfast. Drinking their coffees. Many in silence.
And then it hit me
It hit me that nobody knew who I was. Nobody cared. Nobody cared about anything or anyone else. Nobody was rushing up to me and giving me a hug. I wasn’t throwing my arms around people and shouting “I bloody love you and I am so pleased we finally got to meet”. That I wasn’t at the Brewery anymore. A place like Cheers where everyone knows your name.
Nobody was stopping me and saying “Congratulations” / “loved your talk” / “can I photograph your shoes?” / “would love to talk to you about follow and no follow links” / “Can’t believe you put your arse on your blog” / “it’s you!!!”. Where I was doing the same.
I was back to being the tubby, middle aged housewife again. Back to being anonymous. Funny how my avatar was chosen because on the internet I wanted to be anonymous. I didn’t want people to know who I am.
Yet in reality, on the internet people DO know who MummyBarrow is. That mad crazy woman with far too much to say.
In reality that people in the real world have no idea who Tanya Barrow is.
Britmums Live 2013 was over.
I am sending you THE BIGGEST hug ever! You are a fabulous, amazing person and those real life people who don’t know you are missing out – BIG TIME! xxx
I had MASSIVE post Britmums blues yesterday – Hubbie took me out to lunch and a big glass of wine to help.
It kind of did :o)
I am both sad it is over, and delighted to have my toddler back in my arms! Loved it, wish had caught you for a longer chat, in fact wish I had caught lots of people for a longer chat, it was all over so fast! Roll on the next time xxx
I love that mad crazy woman with far too much to say – online and offline. She rocks and is epic and one of the loveliest people, I have ever met.
I know what you mean with the post BritMums blues. It’s strange when the BritMums bubble bursts. When there isn’t the hustle and bustle of 500 people, the smiles, the laughter and the hugs, but they’ll all be back, so that we can soak up that inspiration, happiness and support again and hopefully it will last us until the next time 😉 x
You made me cry! I wandered round Tesco yesterday with Evie and couldn’t understand why people were staring at my name tag!
This morning I’m sat here in an empty house watching nonsense on the TV and wishing there was a tubby middle aged house wife to hug me and laugh with me and tell me she bloody loves me, cos I bloody love her!
I felt exactly the same yesterday as I did sitting in departures the day after my wedding. Drained of all the excitement, it’s an anticlimax. But we couldn’t possibly sustain that for more than 2 days, and I know that the drip feed of wonderful words on lovely blogs will start to cheer me up soon. And just because we’re not in the same room, doesn’t mean we’re not still on the same page. Love you x
Big squeezes! I miss everyone so much.
Hoorah for blogging, I actually can’t imagine my life without all you lovely lot in it. It would be far far emptier, that’s for sure.
Sending you *massive hugs* T. I completely understand missus, my happy bubble has well and truly popped. Even though we’re not physically there with you right now having a giggle and a cup of tea, we still know who you are, know how epic you are and it’s a complete pleasure to be able to say that. Seriously.
We’re not going anywhere.
Huge love.
I’m still feeling massively high on the love and feeling of community from Saturday, I don’t feel like I’ve come down at all yet…however, I reckon Wednesday will be the day it hits me, so expect to have to scrape me off of the virtual floor mid-week!
But, as the gorgeous Lady B says above, anyone who doesn’t know you is a FOOL! I’m still shocked that you don’t get papped on a daily basis!
I reckon that they were all trying to play it cool around the local celeb…..
Actually I know how you feel, as I think we all do. There was so much noise, chaos, craziness, happiness and Bailey’s cocktails, that I found it very hard to sit and just be all of yesterday. Maybe that’s why tickets for next year are already on sale- to ease our pain and loss?
I’m with you. Was on the biggest come down ever yesterday and now I’m writing about it I’m feeling thoroughly miserable that it’s all over. It was such an awesome weekend and I am very happy that I got the chance to say hello 🙂 Roll on 2014!
Totally relate. I have the post BML blues to.
BML reminds me of that famous CHEERS song, you know the line where it says “everybody knows your name”.
Ah well, until another year.
Liska x
I see you made the link to the song too! 🙂
I totally get where you are coming from – but we are all still here, and we all think you are great…we are all still sending those virtual hugs all the time, thats what so fantastic about t’interweb, no matter what u are feeling, there is always someone there to pick you up again. You rock. Buy your 2014 ticket, and look forward to next time perhaps?
YOU ROCK. That. Is. All.
And as I told you earlier, when you get to the top of the mountain you have 2 options:
1. To grab a parachute and sail down again.
2. To jump on a rocket and head for the MOON!
I think I know which one you’ll be going for Lady B!
Hugs always x
Love you. Nothing Else. The End x
Felt exactly the same. Kept staring at everyone on the tube, wondering if I recognised them and they me. Thankfully, I didn’t hug anyone (could have been embarrassing!). Glad I got to hug you in the entrance of The Brewery…I’m not normally a hugger, I’m not sure what came over me at BmL!
Understand totally – we’ve all suffered from time to time and we do recover!
Truth is we’re all mad because we choose to stick our heads over the parapets not wearing steel helmets – and we’ll do it again and again.
I offer a quote from a GBS book “The unreasonable man”:
“Progress depends on the unreasonable man”
Let’s keep marching towards the sound of the guns – all in step, too.
Oh blimey you have just put my feelings into words. Its the smilelessness of the outside world isnt it? I didnt meet you at britmums live but I will next year (I hope) and I totally miss the non judgemental sisterhood (and brotherhood!) of bloggers this weekend. I loved the tears the laughs the joy the sorrow the learning… and now I am just a middle aged teaching assistant again. You put it perfectly. x
Aw don’t you bring tears to my eyes and to think my weekend started meeting you in the Hoxton!
Brilliant time, let’s hope we manage another meet up sometime soon – can’t wait another year!
I know just how you feel, although not the feeling like a celeb bit, just the coming back down to earth after a massive great big high bit.
This is the just the start of something much bigger for you, so enjoy the peace now while you still can 😉
xx
A huge congratulations, Mrs B.
While I’m here I shall just think back to my childhood when the pop man used to come round with his van…dandelion and burdock….mmmmm.
You hit the nail on the head- real life doesn’t seem as much fun when you are out and about with no chance of getting a surprise hug!
Well done on all your awards at the BiBs. It’d be great to meet you next year!
Hey girls, does anyone know how much our giftcard was for?? Mine has nothing written on it. Did I miss the memo?
A tenner!!!
Found it, opened it, spent it
By 11am Sunday morning
Sounds quite a lot like post-festival blues! Similar feeling all around – everyone happy even though people don’t know each other they are perfectly happy to sit chatting to strangers for an hour! Now I have post-BritMumsLive and post-Glastonbury blues!!!