Strange Meeting

The children & I flew to the UK on Mon, through an electrical storm. Fortunately the childen fell asleep as soon as we took off. They have slept through earthquakes in Albania & violent thunderstorms in Sri Lanka during the monsoon season, so I shouldn't be surprised. It was the worst turbulence I have experienced in 2 decades of flying all over the world.

The stewards had reached the middle of the plane & were handing out the food boxes when it hit. We were shaken about so violently they couldn't even make it back to the galley & they also couldn't stand up, so the two stewards knelt in the aisle hanging onto their trolley all the while. I'd never seen anything like it. It lasted over 25 minutes & was, frankly, horrible. eventually the pilot came on saying, "Sorry about that the wind completely changed direction & doubled in speed very suddenly." Don't they have computers to detect that sort of thing? He sounded like it took him by surprise - a bit disconcerting.

We have come for our annual summer visit to the UK & are about to disappear into deepest sheep country in the Lakes & then on the Grand Tour of Great Britain, so won't be blogging for a while.

But I must tell you that on Thursday I had a strange but lovely meeting. Iota & I finally met, 3 years after exchanging emails & meeting in the blogosphere. I never had a pen pal. She was my 21st Century cyber equivalent. She had looked at one of my links to a photographer friend & recognised the backdrop of many of the photos. It was the place in North Devon where she & her husband had met. So she emailed me. The rest, as they say is history, or in fact herstory. And my story.

We had seen photos of each other, skyped each other, but still I wondered what it would be like meeting someone you have never actually met. Like meeting someone you hear on the radio. So familiar, yet also unknown.

But it was great. We chatted for 5 hours. I discovered, amongst other things, that she is the 2nd oldest, she too has an older unmarried sister & 2 younger brothers. Her youngest brother, like my youngest brother, was the 1st to have children. And we found we got on as well in real life as we did in the blogosphere

We sat under the shade of a tree in her mum's gorgeous garden whilst the children played, finally drinking tea & eating digestives as we had promised ourselves we would do one day 3 years after we had first met in cyberspace.

And though I love blogging & the blogging community, you can't beat a real cup of tea in a real English garden with a flesh & blood friend (especially if accompanied by chocolate digestives) . I am thankful for the blogopshere that has enabled me to meet people I would otherwise never have met. But you've got to admit, it's a funny, old world.