Monday, February 23, 2009

Lucky Spaz

To my surprise, on Saturday I found myself attending the Irish Blog Awards, held in Cork. It's not that I didn't know I was going out that night. It's just that I wasn't paying attention to exactly what I'd agreed to attend.

Sabrina Dent, a fellow blogger/American in Cork (and thrower of excellent election parties) invited me to attend a gathering of women bloggers at the Cork International Airport Hotel. I just kind of assumed this was all there was to it. The idea of a blog awards did register, but vaguely, again with assumptions galore (women bloggers? Cork women bloggers?). It wasn't until I heard Rick O'Shea from RTE 2 FM talking about coming down to Cork for the IBA's that it registered that maybe I was missing some vital information. Like the fact that the Ladies Tea Party was actually just a prelude to the grand awards show for all Irish bloggers?

Of course, I hadn't thought to try to get a ticket to the IBA's and, of course, they'd been sold out for quite awhile, but I registered online for the waiting list/standing room tickets and just hoped for the best.

All in all it was a great night! The Ladies Tea Party was filled with 30 really impressive women, who also really know how to put away the wine and cupcakes! And the awards show itself was much more fun than I could have imagined. Let's just say boisterous call-and-response exchanges during the presentations, the appearance of a wedding dress marching down the aisle, toilet paper rolls on the dance floor, and a more than slightly disturbing game of Twister were all part of the festivities!

I came away from it, not only thinking "these bloggers really know how to throw a party!", but also quite intimidated by the quality of really excellent writers of all stripes out there. Journalists, arts, social and pop culture commentators, humorists, business owners, news and current affairs analysts, personal bloggers, etc.

Congrats to the IBA nominees and winners. You all richly deserve the recognition!

Note to self: Must do better!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello missy, it was so lovely to meet you on Sat night! And I see that you are also a Spike-from-Buffy fan too, clearly a woman of most excellent taste ;)

Lynnie from Beaut.ie

Sabrina Dent said...

YAY! You had a good night! I totally lost track of you after the Tea Party. Don't take it personally; I lost my own husband, too.SO happy you met nice new people - did I read you shacked up all night with the FABULOUS Beaut.ie gals and the infamous Twenty Major?

Sirmelja said...

Thx Lynnie! It was great meeting you and Aphrodite on Saturday. What's not to love about Spike? Poor, misunderstood sweetie that he is!

Sabrina, clearly you were much more looped Sat night than you appeared, if you don't remember the several little chats we had after the Tea Party! :-) Either that, or you were just still in hostess-mode. I had a great time at the "winner's table" with the Beaut.ie girls. They are TOTALLY fab! That wasn't Twenty Major though, it was Fiona/Pursued by a Bear. I don't think the 2 can be confused for each other :-)

Sharon McDaid said...

Hey I found your blog, thanks to Sabrina. I loved meeting you and really enjoyed the night. Can there ever have been such a high concentration of utter marvellousness in the whole of Ireland before? I think not.

Sirmelja said...

Sharon, loved meeting you and your sister. Though it made me sorta homesick for my own sis. So cool that she came over from London to support you. We were all pretty fabulous, weren't we?! BTW, very impressed by your blog. Will definitely be keeping up.

Anonymous said...

Hi there Sirmelja, it was lovely to meet you, Sabrina does indeed know how to throw a good party! Having a wee read through your blog now :)

Sirmelja said...

It was great meeting you too Claire. I have to say I LOVE your photos on your blog. Just beautiful!