Probably one of the best days of my life! Audra and I are so, so, so over the moon at all the support and love – it really was an amazing day and night.
We arrived at the new Grange hotel St Pauls on Wednesday night and were thoroughly spoilt by Raj with drinks, snacks and jokes! We had a tour of the hotel, and what a hotel it is, truly gorgeous and sophisticated – the perfect venue for the Blondes in Business book Launch! Molton Brown products in the bathroom girls! Plus an illuminated magnifying mirror - ok that was not so good – highlighted all the skin flaws!
So we went to bed that night all very excited, and eventually sleep came only to be disturbed at 3am by a light tapping on the door I ignored it and Audra didn't! Good job as it was for Audra anyway – a little man in a bathrobe and socks with a bottle of champagne – not a full size one either Audra noted! Well what a laugh – Audra sent him packing but he gave us a great story for our speech the next day!
Next morning (Thursday) we got up and had a very low carb breakfast – Bacon and eggs, hoping against hope that our tummies would disappear before the big night!
At 12.30pm was the start of the RLI MIX networking event, with a list of attendees that any serious business would die for, sponsored by Kilby and Gayford – thanks Chris, I am sure you agree it was FAB!
Lots of business was done and card swapping and connections made – the event was in the hotels Atrium; a glorious feast of glass and gorgeous furniture, with logos revolving on the walls with a clear blue sky right above the 120 or so attendees, it was stunning. The buzz was immense.
At about 4.00pm Audra and I dashed to the room to put on our party frocks – photos to come – watch this space! The room was packed with the Ladies from Deal, Cy – Audra's brother, my three wonderful children ( OK adults ) and Jayne (RLI Editor) all fighting for bathroom space, in an attempt to look fab for the book launch and we actually achieved our goal – everyone looked amazing. I was SO proud of my kids. We then found out my Mum and Dad were in the room opposite – bit of a worry as I was not convinced I would be a child to be proud of later on in the night!
How can I begin to explain the atmosphere??? To come into the Atrium and see our pictures up all over the walls, books on the tables and a room full of friends, family and close work colleagues – it took your breath away. To get that much support was incredible. I only wish we could of given everyone all the attention they deserved for the effort they had made – people had come from Dubai, Bristol, Dartmouth, Deal, Peterborough, Gloucester, Marlborough – all over the bloody place – it was a kind of madness really. Drinks were flowing, laughter and ooh's and ahh's and 'haven't you grown' statements all over the place (aimed at my kids I'd like to add – not Audra and I!) People that had knew of one another for years but never met; people that hadn't seen one another for years – it was like a wedding without all the dreadful promises and incumbent hubby!
Michelle our lovely and very talented marketing lady got up on the stage and made a fab speech, followed by a really touching speech by Mindy our publisher and book writing coach and then us – apparently we were fab ( that's what we were told – not bragging – honest! ) and made everyone laugh, we of course mentioned why we wrote the book and got the story in about the 3am visitor the night before, we said all our thank you's and after that well – to be honest I cant remember!!! Apparently my daughter has it on video – so once again watch this space – we need to!
We sold lots of books and the page everyone was turning to was page 66! I guess it proves that being a little risqué can be a good thing! If you wanna know more – you'll have to buy it if you haven't already – go to Amazon!!
The party went on until about 2ish I believe – I have to confess to retiring before the very end, the several glasses of wine, champagne and cosmopolitans were seriously taking effect! But Audra made it to the bitter end – good girl!
The texts, emails, voice mails, facebook comments just came and came all day and night long, we had pressies too! Thanks Kelly, Charlene, Mike, Debs, and Lorraine – how thoughtful of you.
In a nutshell – I could talk about this forever and ever it was seriously one of the best days of my life. Audra will also put her version up no doubt – so we'll all look forward to that!
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