Failures…were successes
(Photo by Dani of Teddy and Tottie)
“Some of the biggest failures I ever had were successes.” — Pearl S. Buck
One year ago today, my post was about the beauty that is often present in imperfection. A couple of weeks ago I had a most unusual experience which underscores the point that some setbacks often turn out to be successful in a unique way.
If you read the comments, you may have figured out that a few of us in the blogosphere recently got together for an online tea time, crossing the international date line so that some participated on Monday evening while others were simultaneously joining us on Tuesday morning. Time travel via the internet!
Technology being what it is, however, things did not go as planned. No matter – it was great fun anyway. Now that I’ve updated my version of Skype, it should go better next time and we’ll all be able to see each other. But, the interesting part is that the voices came through amazingly clearly, as if we were all in the same room, and some of us agreed that we actually heard the voices more than we would have with pictures to distract us. With so many different accents going, that made it even more fun.
Afterward I was able to see some of what I missed through the blog posts of other attendees. I invite you to hop down to Australia with me for a few minutes and see Dani’s colorful photo review of the event, which I’m re-blogging here:
More Lady Edith than Audrey!
Posted on April 8, 2014
OK, so I looked a little more Downton Abbey than Breakfast At Tiffany’s for our big EVENT this morning.
Do you remember last week I was trying to channel my inner Audrey Hepburn, with hats and gloves being a prerequisite for a mysterious EVENT!
Well, I’m the first to admit that in the fashion stakes I was a little off the mark – and so was the weather …
I had a lovely garden setting for the EVENT in front of the veggie patches in The Oasis (not in front of the pond after all because I never did get to tidying it up!) …
… but the weather rained on my parade …
… or, rather, my super exciting … drum roll, please …
international …
Super-duper, splendiferous …multi-national tea party!
Yes, THE EVENT was a Skype, international, hat-and-glove wearing, poem-reading tea party organised by the amazing Boomdeeadda, featuring bloggers from Canada, the USA, New Zealand and little ‘ol me in Australia.
Somehow Boomdee worked out all the time differences, co-ordinated everyone’s available times and pulled the whole amazing thing together!
My shortbread got a bit soggy …
Tigger took over my high tea table when I moved inside to escape the rain …
And my rarely-worn mascara began running down my cheeks from a combination of rain and laughter as we all valiantly battled our way through a few Skype technical hitches.
We could all hear each other, but most of us couldn’t see each other.
I was one of the lucky ones because I managed, by complete dumb luck on my behalf, to see the gorgeous Gardening Nirvana – all the way over in California, USA! And she could see me! So exciting!
But, at the start, I could only see Boomdee’s stylish gravatar – and only hear the beautiful ladies from The Contented Crafter, Life On The Bike And Other Fab Things and Defeat Despair.
Casper instantly fell for Gravatar Boomdee’s charms – and thoroughly enjoyed the range of accents and conversation …
We all decided that despite technical difficulties – just hearing each other’s voices was fabulous enough – and we talked for ages about all sorts.
Finally, after reading out poems we’d selected for the Skype tea party, the extraordinary organiser of the EVENT appeared before my very eyes.
Yay! Boomdeeadda!
Thank-you for organising such a wonderful, exciting event!
I feel as though I have been on an overseas holiday this morning (without the scary plane ride or the hole in my bank balance!)
Aaah! The wonderful world of blogging just got even better!
via Dani at More Lady Edith than Audrey! | Teddy And Tottie.
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Dani, I couldn’t agree more…and thanks for giving us a virtual look at your lovely Australian garden! The next best thing to actually being there!
One year ago today:
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: blogging, community, friendship, international, online chats, sharing, tea time, technology
Defeat Despair 
So fun!!! Thank you for sharing, Julia. I hope you’ve had many successful events since, with your amazing group.
Sadly, Pauline died recently due to a stroke, and I’m rarely in touch with the rest of the group. As we all age, changes happen whether we like it or not, and we are often forced into hard choices about what to prioritize. But it was a wonderful, unexpected blessing for me at a difficult time and for that I’ll always be grateful.