On Bloggers And Birthday Cake.

If you follow my Twitter feed, then you’ll already know that on Saturday afternoon I attended a big food blogger event – a birthday celebration, thrown by Nuffnang, for the lovely Susan of Chocolatesuze. The theme of the bash was Back To School – which really couldn’t’ve been more appropriate, as I certainly felt like the new girl in class. Before I opened my e-mail a few weeks ago to find an invitation, I’d never even considered myself a “food blogger”.

To say I was nervous was an understatement. I was terrified of showing up and having to relive my miserable high school experience – the cool kids completely disregarding me and my little blog about lollies. Nonetheless, I was still flattered (and somewhat curious) to be included, so on Saturday afternoon I braved Sydney’s final autumn shower and headed to the Kent St Living Room.

I’m never one to ignore a dress code – and in a woollen navy dress, white knee-high socks and black beret, I was decked out as a Madeline-esque French schoolgirl. I also decided to sport some of my candy “bling”, which I was delighted to see going down extremely well with the other guests:

(Thanks to Mel for remembering to take the photo I should’ve!)

So, just how many gastronomy-specific bloggers can there be in a city as relatively small as Sydney, anyways?

Let’s answer that with a simple fact: although the headcount of the evening ended up at approximately fifty, the original invitation was for ninety-seven individual bloggers.

Yes, it was an overwhelming room! I’m estimating that I met about thirty people who were previously strangers to me in the space of only three hours. Fortunately, most of the crowd were also newbies to food blogging, and I found that we were all soon at ease with one another. I certainly heard a lot of conversations and bonding over the fine art that is blogging foodstuff (“Do your friends hate having to wait at restaurants while you take photos of all the meals? Mine too!”).

The best thing about the evening was getting to share my fantastical dream of my own lolly store with like-minded folks. Not only was I asked interesting and stimulating questions about my business, but I was given nothing but wholehearted support as well. The most common response to my explaining the store concept was, “Great! Tell me when it opens and I’ll definitely come visit!” It was so inspiring :)

And in the continuing tradition of Rachel’s Universe Must Be Super-Microscopic!!1, one of the food bloggers I met at this event was a woman that I went to high school with. Is that not crazy-bananas?

It was also fascinating to watch so many bloggers in their element. As soon as the servers appeared with platters of nommy antipasto, the DSLRs were whipped out (as if from thin air!) and immediately put to work. I could not help but smile as we as a whole – without even having to vocalise it – allowed each orderve a grace period before touching and eating, so everybody who wanted to could get the best photographs possible. Even as a virtual outsider of the Sydney food blogger scene, I strongly felt their code and connection to each other.

Thanks again to Susan and Nuffnang for the truly marvellous night – I am keenly looking forward to the next time I can meet up with my new and awesome blogger friends!

For further reading (and much better photos than mine!) on the Chocolatesuze Birthday Blogger meet-up, check out all these other food bloggers’ posts: Aficionado, Chocolatesuze, Crunchy Tiger, The Ninja Review, Nom Nom Nibblies, Simon Food Favourites, and StarLoz.