Bloggers
Arriving in Manchester in the early afternoon I had a bit of time before checking into my hotel – the Park Inn Manchester (which I’ll review in full soon!), so a trip to Zizzi’s in Piccadilly was in order for a cheeky Pizza and glass of wine. Blogging events can be notoriously great on the booze front, less so on the food front (especially when you’re a veggie!) – so I had ALL the Pizza thinking I’d still be full by the time I got to the Co-Op and wouldn’t be too battered by the booze!
I made my way over to the hotel and checked in, and found I was on the top floor with views over Manchester (although the weather was vile) and even had a headboard that changed colour (I shit you not!). There didn’t feel like there was much time to get ready, but, thankfully I was dressed up and ready to go within no time.
Gathering in the reception of the Co-Operative HQ – 1 Angel Square, it was fantastic to finally meet Lou from Birds and Lilies, we were led up to the dizzying heights of the 8th Floor in groups of four to room where the Event was to be hosted. I spotted a few familiar faces it the mix, and was slightly shunned by them, but thankfully another friendly face in Hannah arrived soon after to join in the proceedings, we were all invited to take a seat around the tables, and the evening began!
There was a selection of food and wines bought to us to taste, interspersed with a few presentations from Co-Operative staff, during the second course we were joined by Simon who was the guy who buys Wine and Beers for the Co-operative. I cheekily asked if there were any beers around to ‘taste’ and he offered to take four of us (Kat from Baking Explorer had joined our posse) to the ‘Tasting Room’ to have a look around and grab some Beers. He took us to the ground floor to a small room which was stocked floor to ceiling with pretty much ALL THE ALCOHOL. Everyone took a selfie in there as it was a pretty unique place to be 🙂
We headed back upstairs with some more booze and Simon helpfully guided us through what we were drinking, at one point I had a beer, wine and cider on the go.. LAD!
The main event of the evening was a Panel discussion with  Jane, Siân and Lou. It went really well, although I think it should have been done at the start of the evening when the audience was more focused and less drunk.
The evening seemed to come at an abrupt end at 10pm, where all the stragglers (me included) were handed goody bags and led to the lifts, the weather was so miserable still an Uber back to the hotel was just what was needed! Thankfully I found myself back at the hotel in a realitiely sober state, which meant I wasn’t feeling so rotten the next morning, the comfy bed kept me prisoner until late morning – thank goodness for a 12pm check out!
Manchester was at it’s worst on Saturday, cold, damp and heaving with people – after a look around the centre and a quick bite to eat, I decided to head home for which was probably one of the longest feeling drives EVER!
