A blogger’s life is sometimes an odd one.

Early on Sunday of last week – well, 8:00-ish – I found myself huddled at a table in a random branch of McDonald’s on a retail park on the edge of Manchester. Sausage and egg McMuffin, coffee plus free wifi equalled a quiet half an hour putting the finishing touches to a presentation titled How to promote and advertise your blog via social media that I would give at the BlogOnMSI conference just a couple of hours later.

Life as a blogger can be a bit random like that. There are times when it almost feels like a second life that is separate to my normal one. In real life I’m a shy, quiet person with a chronic lack of confidence and a natural aversion to social gatherings. However, in my blogging persona I’m far more outgoing, sociable and confident. I can flit around a room full of people chatting to friends old and new, and stand up in front of a room of expectant bloggers seeking knowledge and talk for 45 minutes without a hint of nerves. Blogging conferences energise me as much as work conferences sometimes terrify me.

It’s a funny old thing, life, isn’t it?

Of course, a lot has happened in Manchester in the week since this photo was taken. 22 people went to an Ariana Grande concert a couple of miles away a day later and never came home. It was just random, terrible chance: 22 people out of an audience of 21,000 who had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The land of blog can be a strange place at times. But nothing as odd – or occasionally as tragic and terrifying – as the real one. My trip to Manchester was a little diversion from the norm but it was nonetheless relatively ordinary – in a good way. There but for the grace of God go I.

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