I looked around for familiar faces, my heart beating a trillion times an hour. There were many smiling faces looking back at me, but none that I recognised. Be still my beating heart. You’ll be okay.
Within moments in walked faces I recognised, and I suddenly felt a wave of calm come over me. Phew.
I put on my name tag and began to mingle. Lexi from Potty Mouth Mama and I were joined at the hip all night. She’s my kinda people. As is Stacey from Sunny Mummy. Her energy is contagious and it’s the kind that you want to catch.
We were called to sit down at an oversized table, and make ourselves comfortable.
I’ve had three careers in my life so far. I’ve sliced bread at a bakery, worked in a clothing store and I’ve been {and am} a Nanny.
Bring it on! I’d love to be involved, I replied.
So when I sat in my meeting I had a moment: How on earth did I get here? I looked around there were people from magazines sitting across from me {those glossy things that I am heavily addicted to} and established bloggers sitting beside me. It took all my might not to grab my notepad and pen {free stationery, wow} and ask for an autograph.
There was a huge TV screen in front of us with a man speaking to us live from the States. A huge TV screen without Dora or Spongebob playing, it was a miracle. How on earth did I get here?
Three weeks ago I got an email with the subject line: A Perfect Night’s Sleep. They had me at hello. I was in. I didn’t care what they were selling or offering, I needed it. I was so in.
Pampers nappies were launching in Australia and they wanted to treat a handful of special {that’s me!} women to a perfect night’s sleep in a five-star hotel. My head was in the clouds dreaming of soft white pillows, high-thread count linen, peace and quiet, and… sleep. Uninterrupted sleep.
The idea was that Hubby would stay at home with Lacey and I’d go on to have a great night’s sleep. But as we’re the family who hates to be apart, we eventually decided that the perfect {or not-so-perfect} night’s sleep included all of us. So we all trekked into the City.
I listened to the man speak about the revolutionary nappies, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was in high school listening to a teacher… but instead I was drinking champagne. I listened, took notes, and nodded as any good student would.
My three careers have had their perks: endless supplies of bakery goods {goodbye waistline}, discounted clothes {goodbye bank balance} and with Nannying there are more than I could list but some include the unconditional love, limitless cuddles, much laughter, joy, fun and the ability to bring out the child in me every single day.
We retreated to the roof top for a ten minute break, and everyone seemed to relax. We all chatted and talked about what we do, and why we do it. I was in disbelief that my little blog had got me here, among such important company. But it had, and I couldn’t help but be proud.
We spent the rest of the night laughing, eating a three-course meal, sipping champagne and chattering away. Tresillian spoke to us about getting our babies to sleep, and I wrote down notes about that topic like a mad woman. Sleep? Yes please!
Eventually we headed to bed. It was way past my bed time, and I was buzzing from my new adventures. Hubby and Lacey were already sleeping soundly and had been for many hours. I was so exhausted that I didn’t even wash my make-up off {a complete no-no in my books}.
I woke to my alarm beeping at 5am. It wasn’t quite the perfect night’s sleep that I had imagined, but it was still a perfect night nonetheless.
What started as an evening filled with anxiety, a combination of the traffic congestion and finally meeting so many faces in real life, turned into a little bit of an a-ha moment.
People actually read my blog. I know that you’re all there {hi!}, but sometimes it’s all a bit surreal. And to be considered influential {their term} enough to be asked to something like this, it was just very validating.
I’m still on the seemingly endless search for a perfect night’s sleep, but aren’t we all?
{I’ll review the new Pamper’s nappies next week and let you know what I think}.
Just Gorgeous….what an amazing night to be a part of ..and to share it with your darling family…Darling..you deserve every bit of recognition and every bit of pampering …as you have opened up your head and heart to so many followers here in blog land…and that's what has brought you to this surreal moment…because everyone loves WHO you are and what you share. Your a special gal Mrs Chantelle..and dont you ever forget it!!!
Ooh, I want one of those–a perfect night's sleep that is. Sounds like you had a great night, and judging from your number of followers you had every right to be proud to be invited.
Have a great week.
Shelly
You should be so very proud of yourself. Well done. How exciting! (Although I am shaking my head at the fact that you took all of you to that hotel room……..I suspect I would be more selfish!)
wow. thats an amazing experience.
i love your blog and can definately see soooo many others out there in the world do too. im so happy for you to be involved in something like this.
xx
That is such a a gorgeous story …
so sweet to hear you took your whole family to the hotel:) you are an amazing women Chantelle and you should be very proud of what you have accomplished.
you know I'm a huge fan of your blog – your posts always inspire me and puts a smile on my face
p.s Happy Easter hope its a great one XXXX
Well done you! Sounds like a good time was had by all. And talk about influential – look at us all, reading about nappies. Nappies. No-one else would have got me to the end of a story about nappies! Love your work.
It sounded like so much fun. It must've been so exciting to have a night on the town and not have to pay for it! Hooray to freebies.
Oh Pampers, how i love you how I love you. I miss them so much. Please tell me they are coming to Australia in the next 5 weeks!
Oh how so very delightful! I'm really happy to hear that you got some wonderful external validation. Anna's right, you open up your head and heart and your generosity I doing so is very much appreciated, treasured and admired. I'm glad you got a sense of how much your words mean to us countless little peeps in the rest of blogland. Mwah! Xo
Congratulations Chantelle – that is awesome! You so deserve it too! It sounds like it was a really fun night 🙂
ooooh!! how lovely, how fancy, and how special that you all did it together.
BTW, I LOVE pampers. I was so excited when my local Coles started stocking them. My favourite thing is that meshy liner thing that really does keep the wetness on the other side of their precious little bots.
I have gone slightly bonkers and bought about 15 packs…..
xx
Enjoy the high my lovely, you should be very proud of yourself! Not only do you influence people but you influence them in the most important way… the simple, little things in life are what truly make life wonderful and the fact that you blog about these things each day reaches out and touches so many people… have a splendid week my dear! x
Oh wow – what an awesome event to be part of! How exciting to have been invited along and how lovely that your hubby and daughter could join you 🙂
Congratulations, you have ever right to be proud of yourself!
It's so sweet that you took your family along with you too xx
Well done, you should be proud of what you've created here. Love your work!
what a great experience for you to be a part of. i'm very happy for you that your commitment to this blog/community is paying off. 🙂
Aww shucks. It was a great night and I was so happy to finally meet you! x
Glad you had a great meeting and that the effort you put into this blog has been rewarded. Bonus.
Just a shame about it being for Pampers – we had these nappies in the UK and I couldn't stand them!!!
Ahha! I thought that you were commanding a meeting somewhere but this sounds infinitely more fun! What a nice idea and a clever way to promote the new nappies 🙂
so very deserving….(the stuff you churn out is worth big biccies I rekon) x