Plenty of things happening in the real world these days - and I managed to detach myself from the keyboard and tag along to a few…
First was the Irish Pen event last Thursday on Writing for Children. I had a lovely chat with Sarah Webb and Carbags, as well as a quiet drink with Steve Simpson, of Scamp.ie fame, and Brian Gallagher, a very brief hello/goodbye with Oisín McGann and PJ Nolan, a chin wag with the Hungry Caterpillar and the beautiful letter writer Karl O’Neill. Sarah has a comprehensive review of the night - including stats and notes on what everyone said. And she called me lovely. Yup, I’m lovely. (Not quite on the cute-boy list yet but I’m working up to that)
Saturday saw the inaugural (and amazing) Irish Web Awards. And what a night that was. Lovely to meet the regular gang of cohorts (you all know who you are) and to see some others I don’t get to talk to so regularly - including - Sineads, Jen, Deb, Sabrina, Redmum, Martha, Lexi, Suzy, John, Paula, Ciara, Peter, Niall, Aoife, Keith, Ken, Ross, Alan and hello to Jen - who I sadly didn’t see.
Damien surpassed any and all expectations and put together an amazing night and the Grand Boo-Bah did a stand-up job (see what I did there?) on the mic. Congrats to everyone who won (or was nominated - winning isn’t everything you know). There are plenty of pics out there - so far this has been my favourite:
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Great to see you too David. I swear to God I am off the booze from now on!
And indeed… lunching… soon! 
I heart your lady friend!
And you are lovely!
@Deb - It’s for the best hun! (And yes please to lunching soon!)
@ Orpees - She is very very heartable isn’t she… Maybe we can work out a rota system or something
leg-end