SocRecCamp – The ones that got away

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It’s a weird one to try to explain.  “What are you doing this weekend?”

“Umm…I’m going camping”

“Cool, with friends?”

“Umm…..actually, I haven’t met them before…….”

“……….”

“…..and they don’t know who I am…….”

“Taxi!”

“……..and all weekends they’re going to call me by a name that isn’t really my name…..”

But then this is the interweb social media like age and of course anything is possible.  So that is exactly what I did.  

This weekend saw what I hope will prove to be the inaugural #socreccamp as 16 of us set sail for deepest darkest Devon for a weekend of fun, frivolity and hashtags. To say that I was experiencing a certain level of anxiety prior to attending is somewhat of an understatement….to the point that on Thursday I was very close to pulling out.  But I didn’t and I’m glad.

And in the spirit of continuous professional development from these events, this is what I learnt:

1. Social Media and Recruiter type people have mobile phone attachment issues.  In fact they have mobile phone issues.  When in a pub without signal, they resembled a bunch of recovering alcoholics.  Phones were placed, turned, positioned, repositioned, tweaked and re-tweaked.  And that was before the accusations of signal stealing started…… But seriously, I thought I had problems…..these guys are hardcore! 🙂
2. Tents are like cars.  They are a male thing and are without doubt directly associated with confidence about penis size.  We had a range of sizes.  Even the diddy Charlie Elise chose not to sleep in her handbag and to bring one that could have accommodated 30 of her. Mine was the smallest. I’m just sayin’…….
3. Surfing is fun.  It also shows you different sides to people.  As a bunch of beginners we made a lot of mistakes, but everyone persevered.  The Duracell Bunny that is Lisa Scales (and by that I mean she’s fluffy and bangs on a lot) floated past me muttering, “If I don’t nail this I’ll be back here tomorrow, I will do it…” Only  Andy Headworth felt a bit of a prick and decided to stop….whilst the rest of us just looked like a bunch of pricks (he trod on a Weaver fish…he’s a top guy….honest).  But most importantly I think it was a great ice breaker, it gave us some shared experiences that helped calm the nerves.
4. People have some screwed up ideas of what I look like.  No Sarah Knight………………you may be gorgeous and smiley and all that, but I am NOT short, fat ginger and middle-aged!  You must have been mistaking me for someone else 🙂
5. My blog and twitter biographies are pretentious crap.  I hear you, I take the feedback. I’m going to work on them……just as soon as I work out what the hell to say!

But most of all, more importantly than anything else I reminded myself what a good bunch of dudes are out there in the blogosphere and twittersphere.  People that would take an unnamed idiot like me and treat me with respect, kindness and consideration.  People that are ok with the quirks that come with being anonymous.  And for that I extend my deepest gratitude to you all.

A full roll call of #socreccamp participants is as follows:

Wendy Jacob (if you need to find her just use a metal detector)

James Mayes (Mr Innovations Catalogue)

Mervyn Dinnen (one half of Waldorf and Statler)

Gareth Jones (……the other half)

Andy Headworth (purveyor of booze beyond compare and all round top man)

Sara Headworth (delivered some of the funniest most understated one liners of the weekend)

Matt Jessop (my find of the weeekend…..genuine, real all round good guy)

Stephen O’Donnell (genius creator of #beyourownbestfriend)

Sarah Knight (Stumpy Miss Daisy…..)

Matt Alder (Mr iPhone 4 – with no underscore)

Peter Gold (‘sup bruv?)

Lisa Scales (who gave me the best most reassuring hug of the weekend)

Charlie Elise (the journo within and adopted micro Welsh person)

Gary “Gimp” Franklin (employ this man, but for fucks sake make sure he know the dress code before he starts)

Alex Hens (our very own Sugar Daddy….the man who managed to constantly be inviting young women into the car…..)