Meeting Holly & Amy

Amy also wrote up about the day which you can read here, I love how she’s written about it! Make sure you check it out, as usual, she’s hilarious.

After a few weeks of discussing it, I finally met up with Holly and Amy last weekend.

We met up in Manchester for lunch. Initially, we couldn’t decide where to go and have lunch but after setting up a Twitter poll (Twitter is SO reliable!) we ended up going to have Italian food. Is that surprising? Yes. No. Probably. Yes.

I can’t even begin to describe how nervous I was as I was walking to the restaurant; I had to phone Matt to reassure me! I’ve met bloggers before, for example, Micah, Chynna and Mutay, just last month but I always get nervous just in case I completely shock the hell out of whoever I’m meeting (catfish, anyone?)

I have to say though I’ve become much better in the past year of endless networking!

I saw Amy first and felt a rush of excitement because she was right there in front of me. I was probably grinning like an idiot because I recalled all of Amy’s blog posts and how much they made me laugh in real life whenever I read them. I finally got to tell her how funny she is. 😆

When Holly arrived, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I felt when I read her little message in the birthday book that Matt created for me. 😊 Gratitude. Happiness. Excitement. Because she’s actually real?!!?! THANK YOU, HOLLY.

I remember thinking throughout lunch “omg, I can’t believe the little display photos I’ve been seeing on Twitter are like actual people? whaaaa?” I had a similar thought when I first met Chynna, Mutay and Micah. It was surreal!

Italian 🍝

We ate at The Pasta Factory.

Glancing at the menu, we all agreed that we couldn’t pronounce anything or even fake an Italian accent. I have mentioned before that I usually just point at what I want or Hamdah says it for me. Holly hilariously shared this article which explained our whole situation. 

They didn’t serve my favourite mushroom risotto, unfortunately (every other Italian place usually does and risottos are always the ‘regular’) so I was a little disappointed but the waiter was really nice about it especially when I asked out of the blue. 😆

“I’m too short (and drowning) to be damn fine”

After Italian food, we went to have ice cream at Gino’s Gelato. On our way there, Amy spotted the following… which resulted in hilarious photos naturally.

*gets ice cream everywhere and jokes about it*

I got the kinder bueno and chocolate gelato. 😍

The woman who was serving me sort of scared me and WHO PUTS THE FLAKE LIKE THAT?????

Okla

Holly took us to this really cute shop that was just screaming hipster, cute asf, ‘alternative’. It reminded me of the store I spent all my remaining Euros in Amsterdam. 

The super hipster bookstore

This was my favourite part of the day! I discovered the ‘Brainbook’ from visiting this store, which I have just finished and absolutely LOVED.

We also found an amazing set of books on famous, intelligent, incredibly talented women for girls. I was blown away and wished that I was exposed to such wonderful books when I was little – instead of the stories about princesses (not saying that these are bad because let’s be honest – THEY’RE GREAT TOO) but it would’ve been so inspiring learning about the likes of Marie Curie when I was little.

There was also this book, “Goodnight stories for rebel girls” which is bedtime stories on 100 inspirational women, again aimed at young girls. Ahhh, loved it so much! 

Also, Amy pointed this out to me when I said I wanted another pin to add to my bag pin collection.

Afflecks

We wondered around Afflecks. For those who don’t know what Afflecks is, it’s a cluster of small, independent stores and cafes. It reminded me a lot of the Chelsea Market in New York.

Pigeon-watching and dodgy people

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Piccadilly Gardens where we sat and talked about everything. Ranging from schools, University, work, hilarious stories from Amy (as per 😂 She’s exactly how she is online haha!), women and tech (my favourite topic 😆), hackathons, coding. I’ve always felt inspired by Holly’s background in Geography but securing a badass role as a developer, but it was even more inspiring hearing the whole story of how she applied in real life.

Not going to lie, the part of Piccadilly Gardens we were at was a little shady. There were shady-looking people walking back and forth exchanging items, pigeons courting other pigeons when they’ve clearly said no and another pigeon hugging up to Amy where she then rejected it and it continued to be sad in the corner. 😆

Overall I enjoyed meeting with Holly and Amy. It was great to finally get to see them in real life and talk to them without a screen in between us. Thank you for the wonderful day ladies, it was just what I needed! I’m looking forward to seeing them again soon 💖

Another successful blogger meet up! I’m much more motivated and confident to meet other bloggers in the future, if you’re ever around in the area, let me know 😊