I always try to be one of those bloggers that balances out talking about others things with talking about blogging. I see my friends eyes glaze over when I go into a long chat about blogging so aside from other bloggers I don’t expect people to want to constantly hear about it.

That being said I have been lucky enough to go to some great places and be part of some great things due to my blog. So of anyone that is interested I thought I would run down the five highlights of my blog career so far.

Lifehouse Spa

When spabreaks.com approached me to do a blog on Lifehouse Spa there were two reasons this excited me. The first was that they had found me in the first place and decided my views were important and the second was because Lifehouse Spa is my favourite spa and I think always will be.

I’d already visited a couple of times for a generic spa break but I hadn’t actually managed to try the treatments yet. For someone who is as busy as I am the chance to relax in a sauna and steam room and have a little swim is fantastic anyway, so I don’t often book a treatment when I go to a spa. On this occasion I had a full body massage. I’ve always had a hit and miss relationship with massages, mainly because I don’t like people touching me, but this one was amazing. Safe to say with the added bonus of lunch being included I went home feeling very relaxed indeed.

ITVbe Launch Party

This was another one I was actually quite shocked to be invited to. It may seem like ITVbe has been around forever but trust me they haven’t and they had quite a spectacular launch party in 2014. The reason this one sticks out in my mind is because my Mum got to meet Peter Andre and she’s a huge fan of him. After telling her for weeks he was presenting the live TV show about it and she shouldn’t get her hopes up he would have time to chat, he literally stopped us as we walked in to say hello. He is a seriously nice guy and it was a seriously good night.

Lakeside Everyone’s Invited

I’m going to be brutally honest. In the past Lakeside have been known for throwing quite boring blogger events. So I don’t know how this got back to them but the past couple I have made it to have been really good. Last year I went to their summer blogger event. This was great for two reasons. One because it was just a really good event and two because I got to take my aspiring blogger friend who is a bit younger than me. I even got to make my own Lush bath bomb which was probably one of the highlights of my entire life.

Cafe Rouge Blogger Meetup

A couple of years ago Cafe Rogue very kindly offered to put on a blogger meet up. I’ve always found all of the other Essex bloggers to be really friendly and I love finding people I can actually chat to about blogging without boring them to tears. So as well as good conversation there was good food, I love anything French! It’s sad now that a lot of the blogger community seems to now be based on witch hunts and constant focus on what other people are doing because events like this are really enjoyable and let’s be honest you can never have too many friends.

King William IV Chigwell

If you are from Essex then Chigwell is pretty much the motherland so I am not at all surprised I’ve been invited to review the King William IV twice. The first time I took a few of my friends and we had a lovely evening meal there. After that we had the most Essex evening ever and went to Kosho to meet Mark Wright. You only live once don’t you?

The second time I was invited there was more recently. I went down on a Sunday to check out the roasts and I wasn’t disappointed. The food and the atmosphere in the King William make a good case for me being a returning customer and it is now one of my favourite places in Essex.