When this tweet arrived in my stream last week I was absolutely delighted. I’ve been wanting to go to BritMumsLive! this year for a variety of reasons and as a huge Bigjigs fan, and recently appointed Play Patrol Agent, was thrilled that they had agreed to sponsor me to attend.
DELIGHTED to confirm @sussexmummy & @beingmrsc as our brand ambassadors at #BritMumsLive2013 ! 🙂 *woop woop* #PlayPatrol
— Bigjigs® Toys (@bigjigstoys) May 1, 2013
Last week was a bit of a busy week though. As well as the usual children to look after and organise there were also some other things happening and a house-guest for the week. I thought I was keeping on top of things rather well. I thought I was managing to juggle all the home and work demands placed on me and get everything done. That was until this morning.
This morning I checked my email on my phone and saw an email from the hotel chain that I’d booked to stay with whilst at BritMums. Nothing unusually there – once they’ve got hold of your email address they usually try to tempt you to stay with them regularly by a variety of special offers. The subject line of this email made me freze though.
“Let us know what you thought of your stay”
Those nine little words made me suddenly realise I’d made a big mistake. A costly mistake. Rather than booking a hotel room for the night of the conference, I’d instead managed to book one for that night. The night on which I’d made the booking. The night that I spent in my own bed completely oblivious to the fact that somewhere in central London was a hotel room waiting for me. That I’d paid for.
I’m sure it’s really an easy mistake to make. I could try and blame their website, but to be honest it was probably all my fault. I was probably just trying to do too many things at once and not giving any of them the level of attention that they deserved or needed.
I’m just annoyed with myself. Frustrated that I slipped up. I used to be a project manager running huge projects for other people. I used to be good at juggling loads of things at once whilst still paying attention to all the details and making sure things didn’t go wrong.
I was looking forward to a night away – the first without children that didn’t involve a hospital stay. I was looking forward to being able to concentrate on the conference I was attending and to network and spend time with my blogging friends rather than rushing to catch a late train home.
Still, all my own fault so now to try and put it right. To try and find enough work to cover the cost of another hotel room. That’ll teach me to rush things. Maybe women aren’t as good at multi-tasking as I once though!
Disclaimer: Bigjigs have kindly agreed to sponsor me to attend the BritMums Live! conference, but I can’t exactly ask them to pay for a hotel room for the wrong night!
EDITED to add… As a follow up to this story, those lovely people at Travelodge (as it was them that I was planning to stay with) have come to my rescue and I’m now all sorted for a room on the correct date. Many many thanks to them for going the extra mile when it comes to customer service.
I once booked a room in London in a rush and somehow booked it for a month and a night rather than just the one night. I completely didn’t notice when I clicked through all the confirmations, pay-now-non-refundable rate etc. for £4,000 – I only spotted it on the confirmation email. I’d thought I was paying the number they quoted as ‘average nightly rate’.
Happily they didn’t charge my card immediately and I got away with an quick amendment, but that was the biggest panic I’ve ever been in.
Sorry Rupert but I really did laugh out loud at that one! Yikes – must have been a heart stopping moment when you realised.