The MADs 2013 : Wine, Heels, Tears, Racism and sexual assaults on a Medical Professional

Disclaimer – I’m tired and hungover whilst writing this – it’s probably going to be ‘organic’ and added to as stuff comes back to me, so excuse the mistakes and errors for now – I’ll fix them soon!

So Friday night saw ‘The MAD Blog Awards 2013’ – I had won a ‘golden ticket’ to be there, everyone else was pretty much nominees, and PR folks! I arrived at the venue pretty much bang on 18.30, ready to get on the sauce, fellow Daddy Blogger DaddaCool arrived soon after and we were quickly ejected from the Suite as Sally and Co weren’t ready for us. Alex and I had a quick catch up and waited for the free drinks to flow.

Once we’d registered, I was all over the free bubbles, the quick pint I’d had with my sister at Liverpool St beforehand was wearing off. The room slowly started filling up with more and more people, mostly ladies in beautiful dresses and killer heels! I was feeling very nervous, so many people, so many people I didn’t really know! I tried to start conversations with people too (I *never* do this!) and on the whole it went well. Lots of similar questions asked of me..

“What’s your Blog?” kiphakes.com
“Is that your real name?” Yes.. (goes into story of name)
“What category are you in?” I’m not, I’m a freeloader!
“What do you blog about?” Everything, really, anything
“Have you been blogging long?” Yes, 5 years

I couldn’t help but feel mildly disappointed that some people don’t know me – (must try harder!). Although it was kinda fun having lots of  people come charging over saying “Hi Kip!” with lots of hugs! It was fab to finally meet An Essex Wife, bump into My Monkeys Don’t Sit Still and meet the incredible JustANormalMummy who was with All the Camping Gear. There was a little kerfuffle of excitement when the evening’s host appeared – Dr Ranj off of CBeebies. The prospect of a successful, hot, TV Presenting actual Doctor seemed to get many of the ladies fired into an oestrogen fuelled red mist, he had his face licked, and body groped. No wonder he’s always smiling! Not one to be a shrinking violet, I quickly joined the ‘photo with Dr Ranj’ queue, just behind the lovely Gourmet Mum who gushed to Ranj about ‘The Poo Song’, I took a photo for her with her phone, and she returned the favour.

I also met Fi from Childcare is Fun who was having a ‘quiff off’ with Dr Ranj (Fi totally won!). One of the first thing’s Fi said to me was ‘I know you Kip Hakes.. You were rude to me!’, that didn’t really help me narrow it down. Apparently on one of the Facebook Blog groups I’d (rightly 😉 ) accused Fi of Link Baiting. We had a little ‘play bicker’ about it all before heading in for Dinner.

I’d checked out the table plan previously, and was terrified, not one person I knew was on my table, I necked my 3rd glass of bubbles and looked for my table, I was right at the back, but still had a fairly decent view of the stage! I also felt a little relief finding out that Tired Mummy of Two was my table, we’d met briefly at the Skribbies do – it was good to see a familiar face. Soft Thistle came and sat next to me, she had an AMAZING pair of sparkly heels on, I don’t think I’ve seen such sparkles before! I had great fun teasing her Scottish heritage and querying that she couldn’t really be scottish as she wasn’t drunk. I did ask if she was on the Heroins instead (Scots are all drunks or druggies right?). She took my teasing in the spirit it was intended and it made the meal fly past.

The venue for the awards is dead posh, and the waiting staff aren’t 16 year olds doing weekend work – each table everyone had their food put down at the same time. It was very surreal seeing them serve with such timing and precision. The food was beautiful, extremely good, and a lot easier to digest than the casual racism towards the waiting staff from one of the members of our table *glares*. Horrible.

The MADs 2013 kicked off properly with the giving of the Awards. I must admit, I’m crap when it comes to reading other blogs so a lot of the names were new to me. It was nice having a bit of banter with Marylin throughout the show, and I was really gutted neither her, JustANormalMummy or Daddacool won in their categories. The half time to the awards came and I nipped over to JustANormalMummy‘s table to offer my commiseration and to have a moan about the nasty person on my table.

I said hello to Captured by Lucy whose photo skillz are probably the best in the blogging community, and this was confirmed by her winning an award for the same moments later! The biggest winner on the night was Mammy Woo who scooped the Blogger of the Year award, she could have won most ‘awesome shoes’ too. The staggeringly tall pink heels were MASSIVE, I’ve no idea how women walk in heels at the best of time, let alone the one’s she was rocking!

With that the formal part of The MADs 2013 were over, and it was time to socialise and drink, this is where the night gets a little hazy as I was being helpful and finishing off the half empty bottles of wine on the tables. Probably not a very good idea. It did give a bit more dutch courage to go and chat to people I half know from Twitter and Facebook, I had to tell Victoria how fab her outfit was. Also Alice had the biggest eyelashes I’ve ever seen on someone outside of Newcastle, and she had a hip flask full of Gin (bloggers are awesome!). I also felt the need to tell Becky just how much she looks like Ella (they really look like sisters!)

I also had a long chat with a fellow blogger about how she really did disliked my online persona, and had actually blocked me on Twitter, although now she had decided that I am ‘lovely’. I do come across as a bit grumpy or rude sometimes, I’m really not that bad! Honest!

I kept looking around for Jenny too, she won the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ Award to a lot of tears and applause from the audience. I’ve spoken to her a few times over Twitter and I’ve never actually met her. The loss of her little Matilda Mae really struck a chord with me, Matilda and J were born around the same time, and I can’t even begin to comprehend losing him. I honestly didn’t know what I’d be able to say that hasn’t already been said. I think the best I could have mustered would have been a big hug.

The end of the night was drawing near, and it wasn’t long before my fellow Essex based blogger and honorary train buddy Alice came to hunt me down and take me home! Unfortunately, despite our best intentions, we actually missed our last train home by a matter of minutes. The tannoy was announcing the station was closed, thankfully we just got on the last train that would take us CLOSE to home. It’s a £40 cab ride from home, but better than NOT getting home.

It was an awesome night, and I’m so glad I met and spoke to so many people, starting to feel a bit more ‘in the community’ now and will definitely make an effort to keep up with everyone! I must thank The MADs 2013 team for giving me my ‘Golden Ticket’ – I definitely will be back there next year, as nominee and a WINNER! Yes, yes I will! 🙂

Update – Quick hellos to.. Side Street Style , DownSideUp , and of course Steph’s Two Girls who I sll chatted with briefly and made me smile 🙂