Hanging out in Melbourne with blogging buddy Desley!
Posted on by Debbie

Meeting a blogging friend for real!

I have followed Desleyjanes’s blog , Musings of a frequently flying scientist, for ages – I’ve  admired her beautiful photos, her creativity, I’ve loved her stories, enjoyed her posts about Gidget her dog,  felt her initial pain when she moved from her family in Brisbane to Melbourne, smiled to myself when she started feeling settled in her new city, joined in on her challenges and her weekly contemplation posts…..in other words I’ve ‘known’ her for ages!  But last weekend I actually ‘met’ her – in person!

I can assure you that she was exactly as I thought she would be. It felt so weird because I did feel like I already knew her but I had to keep remembering that we had only just met! She’s the most lovely, vibrant, fun person I’ve met in ages, but I knew all that before I actually met her in real life!  How bizarre is that?? Have you ever been in a similar situation?

It was all very easy to organise. I was going to be in Melbourne for the weekend and posted about my plans and Desley suggested we meet up, so we did just that.  I remember last year or the year before (?) reading posts where she had met up with mutual blogging friends while on holiday in UK and Amsterdam and I wondered how it would be if I ever got to meet someone I had been corresponding with through my blog.  Well I now know exactly how it feels – it’s awesome,  great fun and I would heartily recommend it if you ever get the chance.

We had arranged to meet at the Finders Keepers Markets in Melbourne and found each other very easily.  We joked that we had the same colour jacket on so that we would recognise each other, but that wasn’t really the case, we both just have good fashion sense! We chatted as we wandered around the market stopping to look at anything that took our fancy and I like to think we got along famously.  We bought things, asked each others opinions of purchases and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The markets were very good quality with lots of variety and interesting stalls.  There were masses of people but the crowd and stall holders were all friendly and very pleasant. The Exhibition building where the markets were held was a gorgeous old place and a great venue given the number of stalls and people.

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Just some of our shopping at the Finders Keepers Markets in Melbourne

I did feel sorry for Desley as not only did she meet me for the first time but I also introduced her to my husband, my sister Sharon and my brother-in-law Tim. She handled it all very well and they had things in common, being photographers and bloggers too. Desley suggested a ‘hipster’ cafe she was keen to try and then offered to drive us all there in her gorgeous little red car.  Now I must tell you that my husband and brother-in-law are both well over 1.9mts tall (6 foot) so it was quite funny to see them squished in.  She was very accommodating and generous as she really didn’t know us very well and here we were getting into her car and being driven around Melbourne! We enjoyed a delightful lunch at Mayday cafe in Richmond and I used a photo of my lunch(commonly known as dessert) for the weekly photo challenge – The Cherry on top was missing  

We took a few selfies along the way, talked and laughed and posed for a few more photos – we all blog about life and take copious amounts of photos so what did you expect?!

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The eyes have it!

After lunch we parted ways, with Desleyjane going home to Gidget with her purchases from the markets and plans for a crafty weekend.  The rest of us decided to walk the 4km back to my sister’s place instead of catching a tram and managed to get in just before it started raining again. We had plans for the Run Melbourne event on Sunday and I wrote a recap of the event here – Run Melbourne 2016.

I’d love to meet up with Desleyjane again when I’m next in Melbourne. I just hope the experience wasn’t too traumatic for her.

Thanks again for a great time Desley – you are a friendly, clever, talented and generous soul. It was my pleasure to finally meet you for real.

Deb

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Hanging out in Melbourne with desleyjane!

30 Replies to “Meeting a blogging friend for real!”

      1. Ditto. Let’s face it I love walking, though having said that, at the moment swimming and cycling are far more enjoyable when the temperature is over 30 degs!

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  4. Pingback: Blogger meet up – Fun Friday photo – Deb's World
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  8. How wonderful Deb and Desley! love how you integrated the cherry on top photo challenge into this! id say meeting DJ WAS the Cherry on top!
    I look forward to coming home at some who knows when time, and meeting you and Desley also…
    whilst I was away on holidays I really missed my blogging friends.
    I very nearly met up with a couple of them, but wasnt meant to be, this time around.
    Great post! 🙂

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  9. Fantastic! So cool to see you two together! And, congrats on getting back to running too. I just read that post too. I feel like I have been missing your posts in the reader. I’ll have to keep a closer watch!

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  10. Oh Deb and Desley, So good to hear that you had a fun time together. I have been fortunate to meet a few fellow bloggers and people from a “photo a day” challenge. As you say, you feel as though you already know each other, so the face to face meet is easy. My daughters laugh at me when I talk to strangers in the real world or online, but talking and suggesting to meet for a coffee has led to delightful friendships for me. Hope to meet you both sometime 🙂

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    1. That’s sounds lovely Ruth! I’m glad you’ve had similar experiences. My daughters roll their eyes at my meeting up with blogging friends. It’s a lovely thing to meet up. Thanks for your comments.

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  11. I have been fortunate enough to meet many bloggers, everyone of them was exactly like I thought they would be.m, and everyone was lovely. Glad you had the same experience

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    1. Thanks for sharing your experiences Shaz, it’s such a funny feeling knowing them in many ways but just meeting them in person. Bloggers must all be lovely people that’s all I can say 😊

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