One Life. Live It. With brownies!!

It came to my attention on Thursday afternoon that Kate who makes The best brownies in the world was organising a "tweet up" at her stall at The Real Food Festival on Friday afternoon at 1pm.   If you haven't heard the term before, a tweet up is a meeting of Twitter followers, sometimes the first time that followers and followees have ever actually met.    It is great fun and you suddenly go from just being a nickname to being a person.   Though to be honest, I never introduce myself as "T" I am now just "mummybarrow".

Mention of this tweet up made me think "shucks, I would really love to be there".   And not just for the brownies.   For years now (for reasons that may well be blogged about in the future) Mr B and I have lived by the motto of "One Life.  Live It".   Not always for big grand gestures, but equally for the smaller things in life that often make a big difference.

Being self employed means that sometimes it is slightly easier for me to grab the opportunity and "do it".  

A couple of texts sent to organise work and child care and I had tweeted Kate to say "see you tomorrow". 

Kate was busy working with the lovely Sophie who always helps Kate out at these events but I couldn't resist grabbing an apron (which I then stole at the end of the day) and mucking in.

Kate is a massive tweeter and has an avid following.   A lot of those followers are foodies, either bloggers, or in the industry and alot of others are celebs from TV and radio.  In fact it is through Emma Forbes that I first heard about Kate when Emma was enthusing about the brownies in a Tweet one day.

I turned around at one point yesterday afternoon and Kate was chatting away to Jay Rayner.  Yes, the Jay Rayner, food critic, food reporter for the One Show and columnist in the Observer.   Jay has tried Kate's brownies before and was enjoying sampling them again.   He did allow us to take some pics before he shot off to the BBC to introduce the studio to Black Pudding.

I also got to meet Dhruv Baker who was last year's Masterchef winner, who I have been Tweeting for months. 

Obviously the Real Food Festival is much more than just brownies.  It is a great way for small producers to sell to people who wouldn't normally be able to meet up with supporters and customers.  Working from home I know how lonely it can be just running a business from home and only really interacting with customers on the phone or via email.

The Real Food Festival is great for that :  More information      It was lovely to talk to the people on the stalls either side of Kate.

Particularly Jo from Bendy Legs Granola.  I hadn't heard of Jo's product before but loved it this morning, having had it for breakfast.   Not only is it a great, healthy product, but there is a great back story to it.   As there is with Kate.  

Jo also got a hug from Dhruv

I vowed I wouldn't buy anything since I was "Only going to the Tweet Up".   Woops.   I came home to Mr B with four bags overflowing with fresh Italian bread, charcuterie, cheeses and fabulous flavoured vinegars from Wormersley Foods.  Apparently the raspberry vinegar is just the thing to add a certain little something to fizz. Well if you insist! 

Oh and some brownies.

We are going back on Sunday with the kids so they can experience it for themselves.

I loved that I could seize the day on Friday and meet up with some fabulous Twitterers and Bloggers.   Thank you all for helping me "Live It".