BritMums Live: Mixed Feelings

June 25, 2012 By DorkyMum in Blogging Tags: blog conference, bloggers, Blogging, BritMums, BritMums Live 2012, Cherry Healey, online friendships, Piggy Bank Kids, social media 77 Comments

I always find it useful taking a day or two to reflect on a new experience before writing about it, and this weekend – BritMums Live and the Brilliance in Blogging Awards – is no exception. The post I can write today is a lot more measured than the post I would have written on Friday night.

Friday was the BiB Awards, and I will confess to finding the event totally overwhelming and not a lot of fun. I headed into London late Friday afternoon with friend and fellow nominee Emily (The Start up Wife). We had a lovely walk from the station to the venue – although we were so busy chatting that we didn’t pay enough attention to the map and took a much longer route than we needed to. It led us through some funky and interesting parts of London though, and gave Emily the chance to take some photos.

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Twitter is like…

May 16, 2012 By DorkyMum in Blogging Tags: how to use Twitter, joining Twitter, online media, social media, social networking, technology, tweet, tweeting, tweets, Twitter, what is Twitter like?, What Is Twitter? 261 Comments

I was out for coffee the other day with a non-tweeting friend. “So what is Twitter actually like?” she asked.

I ummed and ahhed, and explained it all very badly, mumbling some fairly dry stuff about retweets and hashtags and follows. She didn’t look convinced. So I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and here’s what I’ve come up with.
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Happy Birthday to Me!

April 27, 2012 By DorkyMum in Blogging Tags: blog birthday, Blogging, online networks, promoting your blog, rules of blogging, social media, writing 20 Comments

“Happy Birthday to meeee! Happy Birthday to meeee! Happy BIRTHDAY to mee-eee! Happy Birthday to me!”

It’s not a cake and presents kind of birthday – although I did have one of those earlier in the week – but it’s my first ever blog birthday. DorkyMum is 1 year old today.

I find it hard to believe that I’ve been blogging for a whole year. But at the same time I find it hard to believe that it has only been a year. A few days ago, I was asked what I’d change my blog name too if I was starting over again. Honestly, I don’t think I could. DorkyMum is now a huge part of me, and I can’t imagine blogging under any other name.
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The Lost Art of Letter Writing

January 26, 2012 By DorkyMum in Family, Nostalgia Tags: correspondence, friendship, letter writing, notepaper, relationships, social media, writing letters 26 Comments

Look at this. I got a letter the other day. A proper, handwritten letter – bursting with news – that someone had taken the time to sit down and write, put a stamp on, and take to a postbox. Isn’t it a thing of beauty? And isn’t it sad that it’s such a novelty to get one these days?
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The Book I’d Like to Write: 373 Friends

May 27, 2011 By DorkyMum in Blogging, Family, Travel Tags: Community, Facebook, Facebook friends, friends, friendship, online communities, online community, online media, publishing, social media, Travel 22 Comments

At the last count, I had 373 Facebook friends.

There is more than sixty years difference between my youngest and oldest friends. A dozen of them are related to me. There are seven Sarahs, and three Tims, but only one Wendy.

Some of them are people I went to school or university with, and some of them are former colleagues. There are a lot of fellow mums, journalists, and poets. Three of them are people with whom I shared a tent on the Arctic ice sheet. A small handful of them are people I know through online communities – parenting and photography – who I’ve never actually met.

My friends include several MSPs, one MP, and a former US Congressman. One of my friends made news around the world for disrupting Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the Jewish Federation General Assembly, while another once superglued themselves to a British Prime Minister. One of my friends has featured in a Blackberry advert, and one of them turned down the opportunity to go on Oprah. Continue reading →