Five things #29 and #30

okay okay okay, i missed last weeks Five Things on a Friday post. Gah!
I'll add en extra few to this one, don't worry. Maybe.

1) THE OLYMPICS!!! I cannot help but be swallowed up by the while fever that has taken over form the moaning. Wow, the country has embraced it, for the most part i think. Day one and no medals for Team GB yet, but the games are still young.

2) THE OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY. I was soooooo excited and looking forward to this event all week. And what an event it was! Apparently 27 million people watched on TV in the UK and what a spectacular spectacular it was, from Danny Boyle no less. I loved the set up, a rolling green land, prospering with crops, animals, kids doing a maypole, a cricket match, a concert on a tor, a giant tree and even rain clouds. The moment it all started and then the anthems from the various regions that make up GB, that was the first teary moment. We then moved onto 'pandemonium' and fantastical extravaganza of steel workers, strikers, suffragettes, industrialists and high above the arena were 4 orange lit rings, the fifth being made right there in the make shift foundry. It rose and they all joined together over the towering reeking chimney stacks. It was a wonderfully dark cityscape. We then moved on to a tribute to the NHS, fairytales, JK Rowling reading Peter Pan, Mr Bean! But one of the highlights has to have been the moment James Bond turned up at the palace, yes, Buckingham Palace and brought the Queen to the ceremony on a helicopter and a sky dive! Well it wasn't her sky diving but fair play to the Queen for her sense of humour and rolling with the sketch. Later the athletes came in and the loudest cheer was obviously for Team GB, last ones to appear being hosts and all. So blooming exciting. Sir Chris Hoy held the lag aloft with such pride. It really was inspiring the whole shabang. Let's gloss over McCartney being rolled out again shall we. Throughout it all was a soundtrack of British music and film from the decades. Awesome. It really was a triumph! Bravo, bravo.

3) The Dark Knight Rises. So i relayed my thoughts in another post - without any spoilers i add. but I had to include it here, because it was a good thing of my five...or six...or seven.

4) the family returned from their holiday safe and sound. It was nice having the house to myself for a whole 12 days but seriously I was beginning to miss them and get a bit lonely in the house by myself. I don't think i could live entirely on my own. No way.

5) i had the offer of a sounding board via emails with someone this week. Someone so generous with their time and a person whose friendship is precious. Anyway, it's amazing what clarity it can bring to talk things over, say it out loud (or in print) and see it for what it is. I saw the light a wee bit and it has helped me clear my thoughts about something that's probably hung around for  a few months longer than it should have. Thank you, friend.

6) okay, can't think of any more. i'll end.

Angela x

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"I'm ok" "are you sure?"

It's funny, Christmas is a joyful happy time of the year. A time when you take a break and get together with your family and close friends. It's also a time of new beginnings what with new year and all that. People make resolutions that are never kept. People write lists that are stuffed in notebooks and probably never read again.

News flash. I do like Christmas. I love it in fact. I like what its meant to be, I like the joy it can bring but more often than not what it actually brings to me is strange feelings of complete and utter loneliness. And don't even talk to me about New Year. Oft. I could actually crawl off the face of the earth at new year.

I get really down when I think of people sharing this special season with friends and loved ones and stuff. And yet still some of them seem to moan. They don't realise how lucky they are. Don't get me wrong, I do spend it with family. And that's good and all but I crave the company of peers, people my own age doing fun stuff. 

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Wandering down a wind blown street yesterday I was thinking how I don't really have someone who I can confide in, I mean *really* confide in. I've probably not had a best friend since I left high school. There's no one I can share my news with - good or bad. Or to tell my inner most thoughts, fears and dreams to. Or someone to know that i need a hug from them at the end of a day. I have a few trusted people but they seem to stay way too far away to want to sit and have a chat with about this stuff. And so you dear readers are getting it, warts n all.
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A few days pass and then you go back to work and you get the dreaded question "did you have a good Christmas?". And what kind of freaking monster would I look like if I turned around and said "actually no, it was ok but I felt so low that I just wanted to curl up on the bed and weep".

OR did you do anything for new year? Yes, I slept through the bells and on new years day I went to the cinema to escape the party that was going on in my house. 

Yeah. That would make me really popular.

So the next time you ask someone if they had a good time. And they reply "it was ok" and that's their only words. It probably means that it wasn't ok and you should probably ask "are you sure?".

By the time the third of January arrives I feel a heaving sense of relief and a wonderful calm comes over me. Plus we had macaroni cheese for dinner.

Comfort.

Breathe.

I wouldn't have had the courage to publish this post if I hadn't read these honest accounts of Christmas from Ryan, Luca and Miss NoSweetNothings. Good blogs.

Now?

Now I'm loving the ever lighter nights and looking forward to my birthday. It's soon. Then it's summer...

Angela x

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Five Things I Liked This Week #1 - 6 January 2012

As a follow up to my Five Things post last week, here's the start of a weekly Five Things series. 


1 - Christmas presents...

...from friends you've met on Twitter. A lovely little surprise waiting on me when I got in from work on my first day back. Was it timed that way? Not sure but it was a welcome little addition to a not too bad day at all. The contents were even better and the kind of presents I wish my family thought about buying me. Just my thing indeed. 

2 - Extra day off work

Not an extra day to me but it seemed to be one day longer than most people had off. That was good. I spent it with mum and the nephews. One was grumpy so me and Ryan spent about hour or so watching Fireman Sam on the iPad and then he tried his hand at tweeting. Not technically old enough for a Twitter account (being 5), but he soon got the hang of it. He even remembered the little search magnifying glass icon from YouTube. "that's what we press then type in Fireman Sam isn't it Angie?". Proud. He didn't tweet much wisdom, instead he chose to type words of things lying around. Irn bru. Phone. Calculator. Wee cutie.

3 - Songs that transport you
Zane Lowe has been on the Radio 1 breakfast show this week and he does a feature called Zane versus... On the morning I was up early to go to a spin class (Wednesday), it was Zane versus Matt Smith aka Dr Who. The first song the Doctor chose was ERASURE - A Little Respect.


Oh my god it just transported me back to happy places. If i hadn't been driving the car i'd have been jiving around my room. However, i find that car-seat-dancing is the new dancing around your room. Try it. Carefully though.

4 - A Two Day working week
ah those extra little holidays mean that this week i've worked just Thursday and Friday. Bliss. It's been quiet so got things done. But also, i'd rather have these two little days back than try to haul myself out of bed on Monday morning after two weeks off. That would be hard. Praise be to small little victories like this.

5 - Sherlock Holmes: a game of shadows and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I can't tell you how much i was looking forward to seeing Sherlock Holmes. I saw the first film two years ago on New Years Day sat in a late showing at my local cinema. Me, alone, and about 7 other couples. Cringe. But i liked it a lot. The chemistry between Holmes and Watson was fab and it didn't disappoint in this new one either. Honestly, from the first scene i was grinning like a loon at the screen. It's witty, clever and RDJr is just ace. Jude Law does help too. Also there were a few surprise appearances from actors I didn't know were in it. That was a nice addition to my viewing.

I was looking forward to The Girl WTDT ever since i saw a sneak peak of the trailer a few months back. I'm not a huge fan of Daniel Craig (I've never seen the Bond films he's in), although I did like him in Layercake. But I was willing to give it a go. I watched the original version of the film on a pixelated laptop screen via the LoveFilm website at the beginning of last year. It was good. Very dark and gritty and gruesome at certain parts. I wondered if 'hollywood' could capture that. My verdict is a big fat YES. It's just as dark and gruesome but with a Hollywood sheen over it. Rooney Mara is good and I almost forgot about the original girl. Daniel Craig is blooming marvellous as Mikael. There's even a cameo from Jim Robinson off of Neighbours (he pops up everywhere). It's long at over 2 hours but honestly I didn't really notice the time. It would be too obvious to say it has a bit of the look of Seven to it since Fincher directs here too but I thoroughly enjoyed it and warmed to Daniel Craig more than I thought I would. I would even say i like him now.

I hope they're doing the full series, it would be wrong not to. Can anyone confirm?

One week. Five things. Lots of smiles.
What are yours?

Angela x
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The people of 2011

As a new year draws closer I wanted to .... pay tribute?.... no. Recognise. I wanted to recognise and acknowledge the people who have listened to me, chatted to me, laughed with me, given me wise words, cooked for me, taken me places, watched movies with me and have made me smile in 2011. I thank you all and hope there's more of the same in 2012.

Laura Woods. A wonderful lady and I'm lucky enough to now call her a friend. So glad to meet her, twice, in 2011.
Linda. My colleague and friend. Baby Kai's mummy is her new name. I've certainly missed our random and funny conversations a work. Hurry up and come back! 

Neil Fox. What can i say. Inspiring is what I'll settle for just now. A great great man destined for many great things. My friend Neil.
Karlie MacGregor. Lovely lovely lady who I've got to know the past few months and I'm glad she has appeared in my life. Always there with the right words and girly chat. Oh and a fellow email chatter, which I love. Hey Laura, another one!

Jonny Rose. Smiley Jonny Rose. He had me at tweeting me a picture of an array of ice cream tubs from his freezer when I couldn't find Ben n Jerry's Fairly Nuts anywhere!! Ya little scamp!

Adam Morland. One of the good guys and with two gorgeous boys too. Solid. 

Matthew Smith. Otherwise known (to me) as the guy who works on xfactor but has absolutely no influence on the final votes whatsoever. So he tells. He also let's me win at Words with Friends. Good lad.

Ian Daniels. The Surf Punk. Lovely, kind, generous, sings a mean Beyonce, drives too fast, first in the great Mac'n'Cheese off of 2011! Watch out, Ian, I will regain that title in the grudge match of 2012.

Adam Lannon. The next James Bond or at least Colin Firth. Keep an eye on this guy. He's got stars in his eyes.
Rob Green. Not been around much lately. He calls it 'being a grown up'. But he was there a few months back when I needed some things sorted from a guys perspective. Good man.

The two elves. Simon and Fraser. Finally me them a few weeks ago and I can confirm they're really lovely guys. Who won though?... :)

Photo credit: Simon's phone. I added the effects! hehe...

Sir Chris Hoy and Chris Sacca. The former tweeted me once, the latter tweeted me a few times and favourites some of my tweets! YO. And both those things make me smile.

Pyllon. A rock steady friend and always there. Always. A true gent and brilliant inspiration. He has a busy few years coming up I believe and I know he's gonna do great.
Mr Geoff. Idle Bull. Hadn't had a Milkybar in years til 'Santa' (me) brought him some the other week. Lucky fella.
Craig Zielinski. Lovely Zee. He's not around Twitter as much but these days but good to know he's still there. Somewhere.

Miss Smidge. That's not her real name but i'm not sure her real name is anywhere so i won't add it here. A fellow blogger who i met only a few weeks ago but so glad i did. She's ace. Her blog is ace and she's one of he few people who comment on here. Bonus points!

Lilacswizzle aka Nicola. A lovely lady who gave me good advice this year. I took it, the situation never worked out the way we wanted but still, it had to be done. Thanks Miss!
Illegal Jack. I don't think he's really called Illegal. You'd have to ask him. I can tell you he cheats at Words with Friends, but it's a laugh. Ok, ok so he doesn't cheat so much as places tiles and guesses at words. More often than not he wins though. Cheers dude.

Kevin Gilmartin. Forever now known to us as Gok, for his acute sense of ladies fashion (from nothing other than one twitter conversation). 

Lovely John Heath (@hejmusic) who I met on my trip to London in April.

Andi Kis. Wonderfully chatty, fun and a great raconteur. I could listen to her stories all day long. Someone who you'll never forget.
Wee Bri. My cousin. He's currently probably laying on a floor in a Sydney apartment somewhere after already celebrating the turning of the year. He's was my spin bike partner in crime until he left in September. I've kept him one though, at the front, for when he comes back!
Catherine Anne, Kelly Anne, Karen, Ryan and Connor. My family. They're here. Even when they're not. Those boys are my angels.

Maw and Paw. Aka Kate and Jimmy. Couldn't really ask for a better pair to be honest.

Thanks all for making 2011 what is was.

Angela x

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Five Things...

So I opened up twitter this morning and there was the usual mix of morning/breakfast/exercise/travel/weather tweets. If you can navigate your way through this river of greige, you can always find a few gems hidden. Like, there was also the much tweeted link to the little ditty played by Zoe Dechanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I decided to watch it and it was sweet and nice. I've followed both people here, well over on Twitter, for a while. They're quite good value.

In addition there was a post over here by @Whatleydude. Have a read. I decided that I'd try the five things list on this blog, after all, yesterday in my Mission 2012 post I did say that I'd like to get this blog going again, make it huge, and we all know I like a list! So here it is... Except it's not quite five things, it's from the past year so it'll be a little longer than five. Next week will be the five things list. Ok enough. Let's go...

•  Multicolour trousers - mostly from Topshop. Awesome. 
• Ryan starting school and getting on fine, what a relief. 
• Meeting Miss Laura Woods. An amazing person and friend. Also on that same trip south in February I met lots of Twitter people who really we're lovely. It can happen. 
• Getting fitter and losing weight. 
• Hello size 8 little black dress. Okay dresses. Plural. I bought two! 
• Three beaches in one day with Surfpunkian. Awesome awesome day. Thanks dude. 
• Finally meeting MisAKis. Fun, bubbly and lots of great stories about social media 'darlings'. Haha laughed so much. 
• My first Illegal Jack's. I'll be back. I did. A few times. 
• Loving painting my nails. With glitter! Me! Glitter! WOWSERS how times have changed. 
• Cycling 55 miles from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Fantastic feeling. 
• Giving blood for the first time. 
• Becoming unofficial aunty to baby Kai. Gorgeous. 
• Weekend cinema trips. A sanctuary. The cineworld card has been a godsend for me. 
• Favourite movies: Drive. Sherlock Holmes. 50/50. The Hangover part II (obviously). 
• Elemis skin nourishing body cream. Smells gorgeous and keeps my skin soft and err nourished. 
• Twitter. My love affair with it will never end. Not for the foreseeable future anyways. 
• Baking cupcakes. Several good attempts. 
• Seeing brilliant Twitter friend @pyllon finish one of his races. I was going to say "for the first time" but what I'd mean is I saw him race for the first time. He's raced loads. And done very well, thank you very much. These are no ordinary races, oh no, they're across tracked up and down hills and are usually never any less than about 50 miles!! No mean feat. 
• Meeting Miss Karlie MacGregor. A wonderful person. Damn straight. 
• My love of spin bike class. I can't miss any now. Except I am right at this minute missing one, but you get what I mean. 
• Seeing Mr Neil Fox (@drgonzolives) perform at the Edinburgh Festival with his fab Great Brain Robbery comedy mates. What a laugh! 
• Finding fabulous blogs to read, like Whatleydude's. I've nearly finished reading all the away back James!
• New Red Converse. Only my second pair in two years. I think I deserve another and I think I found them today! 
• Buying my iPad 2. Finally. Although it may be going on sale soon. I love it but... The screen thing still irks me a little. 
• The joy I had doing my walk with Instagram back in October. Me, my iPhone and Instagram. Walking around Edinburgh. Good day. 
• Taking the boys and my sister to the National Museum in Edinburgh. They had a ball. 
• Seeing Kings of Leon at Murrayfield in June. Sounded just like the cd. Great gig. 
• The Killing (Danish version). I love that programme! 
• My trip to London in April. Three days exploring that fab city. The weather was brilliant too. I'll be back.
• My trip to Philadelphia in August. Ok ok it wasn't the real Philadelphia but Glasgow. The film set for a new Brad Pitt movie. Hope it's good when it comes out. 

So that's a few of my most memorable good things from the past year. Next week it'll be just five things from the week. It'll hopefully be a regular post. If not, shout at me!

Angela x
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Strawberry Cupcakes with Glitter on Top

It's amazing what a new day can bring. To say I was feeling a little fragile over the weekend would be a mega understatement, hence yesterday's blog post. I still feel a little down but thanks to a few specials I feel a little less lonely.

You see random acts of kindness can make a person smile. And for me, all the more wider smile when you are the giver of such random acts. Me, well I just see it as doing a friend a favour and if I say I will, then I will. So to receive an email from a new blogger friend with a thousand thanks (nearly!) for my random act of kindness has certainly brought a smile back to my face. Add to that a rock solid person who has been at the other end of the internets for a while now and you start to feel you're worth it again. Last but not least, added to the mix, an email from a friend who's noticed you've not been around and sprinkle in a few good hearty laughs with your ever present work friend and you are grateful for these special few people. You have yourself a strawberry cupcake with glitter on top.

Thank you people, for making me smile again.

Angela x

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Friendship

There's no denying, i ain't no social butterfly. You won't find me trawling bars or being the centre of attention at anything. One of the only time i can remember I was the centre of attention (when I had a surprise leaving do at work before going to Nepal) i actually burst into tears. True. So for me making new friends is not easy. Nor it seems, is keeping old friends. Back in school I managed to find a good solid group of friends. We did lots together, mostly going to under 18's discos, going for long walks on a Friday night and ice skating on a Saturday and Sunday night. But as you turn 18 things change. People start to go out and i did for a while. But not being a drinker and only being 18 (and still at high school) I found hanging out in bars a bit intimidating. I would pass on some invites. Then you meet a boy and your friends start to drift off and still go out and the invites get few and far between until they eventually stop. And before you know it, it's been seven years, you've split with the idiot boy and you have no friends. Yes, no friends that you hang out with. No friends to share your pain and anger at yourself. No friends to tell you you're strong and will pull through.

Time moves on and you start to sort your self esteem out. You come out from a two year hibernation period, get a new job and meet a new friend. Someone you can share a few things with and she invites you out for nights out. But again the being a non-drinker you find yourself in awkward situations. Situations you don't really like when you're low in confidence and have been out of touch socially for a good few years. This friend is great though. She brings you out of your shell, gives you a smidgen of confidence, says it'll be a good idea to get highlights in your hair and all this in your mid to late 20's.

But time moves on again and so do you, to a new job. By now you've gained a little bit of confidence. Even the 150 or so rejection letters you keep filed in a box file has not dented it too much. You're battery is sitting at about 45%. In this new job you feel like you've found what you've been looking for. You soon learn the ropes in no time at all and you get promoted.

You're still not going on nights out, nor have you been invited anywhere for a long long time. So socially you're no further forward than when you began. You so want to be out there. But you can't go yourself. You have no way of getting in touch with your old school friends whom you miss. You miss so much. You recall with a sepia fondness all your little in jokes and laughs and sadness and you ache. Then one day you get back in touch. I can't remember how this happened. It's been nearly ten years. You're all older and wiser and some have kids and some have not. But you're glad to be in their company again. Because of what you've been through you're never going to be that confident in a well established group because now they all have their in jokes and laughs and you try to join in but it'll take time. What a relief though. Friends, some.

So time passes by and you're now approaching 30. You spend your thirtieth birthday at home with your family and kids running about your living room. Not what you dreamt of back in the day but not horrific. At least these are people who love you and probably if they're honest, pity you. Darn. You should be in the prime of your life. You're not feeling that at all. And you feel ashamed. Ashamed that you can't even make new friends, or blag a night out.

You decide enough is enough and start a blog. You're thirty and you're going to do something with your life before it's all over and you've achieved nothing. You decide on a trek to Everest base camp, plan, fund raise and have good times doing that with the never ending help from a work friend. We have fun making Christmas cards to sell, baking cakes to sell, it's all good but still you've hardly had a night out or an invite and you couldn't possibly invite yourself along with people. It's not your style. Gradually people start to comment on your blog and you make virtual friends. (virtual friends?). You meet up with a couple and they're great but have their own lives to lead but you're thankful and grateful and happy you've found some people who share interests and who don't just want to go out drinking all the time. You mostly climb hills with them. Good practice for trekking!

Then you find Twitter and you make more virtual friends. And you're invited to a tweet up. For charity. You think to yourself that you can't be that ghastly if you've gotten this invite. Wahey! It's a bit awkward at first because this is your first social outing in about two years (that isn't a work do). When you come home you judge it a success as the people were lovely. Then there are more tweet ups and you go along and meet more new people. You're not doing too bad now Ange, you reassure yourself. These people are OK. But then it starts to go pear shaped. You question what price they have put on your friendship because it seems to have dried up and you decide that no longer will you be used. You will not be used to RT links, you will not be used for votes in competitions, no sirree. No way!! You realise you were naive, but you like to see the best in people. Perhaps it was your lack of awareness of the bigger picture, after all you're not as socially savvy as some of these networkers. You genuinely thought it was a tweet up and not a place to go hawking your wares like a market trader. But that's fine so you decide that scene isn't for you.

But you do meet lovely virtual people and distance doesn't seem to mean anything since you're invited to a party. You love it. They're a good bunch in real life and you kick yourself that they are so far away as you'd like nothing more than to meet for coffee's, go to the cinema or chit chat over fish finger sandwiches with the telly on in the background. You find friends from other continents and you share some laughs (isn't the internets amazing!).

Back in your own back yard (not literally), you get some tweets to say let's meet up. Coffee, cinema, whatever but it never happens. You wonder why? and you're a bit confused. I mean you'd never ask someone to meet you with no intention of ever meeting them. You know that people have their own lives going on but my word is my bond on most things. And my friendship, well that's priceless and if you've got it then you'll most likely have it for life, unless you do me wrong. Then it's lost forever I'm afraid. I will not let it be used any more. I will not be used any more.

Back in the real world, your friends seem to have moved on without you. You're resigned to this fact and feel that it shouldn't have to be you to do all of the running all of the time. You begin to wonder, maybe you're being selfish, maybe you shouldn't expect too much but Friendship is a two way thing. Isn't it? So why do you feel let down. So if you ever suggest to me to meet up, please mean it, because in my mind I've probably already pencilled in a day in my diary and thought of what we could do to have some fun and it'll be great!

If you're truly honest with yourself you've never had a best friend for years, if you ever had one in the first place. Sure there were really close friends but you couldn't pick one over the other. You'd like to be part of a duo, or a group to do the fun stuff with. You're not a ghastly person after all. In fact you're actually a truly awesome person and have so much to give, to the right people. To people who respect it and people who appreciate it and accept it without any conditions being placed on your friendship. People who don't wish to put a price on your friendship. And that's what you'd like. Are you asking too much? You don't think so.

Right now your best friend is probably your four year old nephew, but he can't really help you make life changing decisions, nor can he give you boy advice but wow, he makes you laugh and smile with his whole being, and what more can you ask of a friend when you're feeling a little bit down with the world.

I wondered if I should publish this post. I wondered if it was too close to the bone. I wondered what people would think of it. Then I read a truly heartfelt brave post earlier today on another subject and was inspired. I decided that I didn't care as I needed to day this. I needed to put it out there. People need to know that you can't walk over certain people just because they aren't as socially confident as you. I have feelings. And while outwardly I may smile and chat and appear to be okay, inside I ache that there's an emptiness that may never go away, and I question, are you really my friend? I hope that some of you are, oh how I hope it's true. Because I've got a lot of friending to give you.

I'm off to play football in the park with my friend. Ryan.

Angela x
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Relationships - in a social media sense

Relationships.  Friendships.  Acquaintances.  They’re all funny old things aren’t they? 

I mean have you ever been in love?  It’s a big question I know.  Some will answer a big fat YES straight away and others will take time to think about it.  I’m the latter.  I’m not talking about any old love though.  You know that all encompassing feeling of emotion when your loved one gives you that look, makes you a cuppa tea, when you get that fluttery feeling every time that person walks into the room and not just at the start of the relationship, little things you catch yourself remembering at odd moments that make you smile.  You know that kinda love that you see in movies where it’s just perfect and happy and everything is right with the world (well in your world).   You know the kind I’m talking about right?  No?  Neither do I.  It struck me today whilst I was deep in thought making the first cuppa of the day, and after reading an article on social media relationships (real or fake borne out of social media), that I don’t think I’ve ever been in love.  And d’you know how i know this?.. when I drove out of the village and suddenly stopped as my wee Ryan was waving to me from his garden gate.  I realised that just now he is the only thing that comes anywhere close to the feelings of real love for someone I think I’ve ever had.  Of course I love my parents and my family and my friends but that’s in the kind of parents, family, friends love that we all have experience of.  He makes me laugh, and not just laugh, proper belly laughing where you jaws ache.  He can bring me to tears with his touches of tenderness towards his little baby brother.  And I swear he has the wit and intelligence of people twice his age.  And so this is how I realised that I’ve never had that feeling before with a significant other.  In the one long term relationship that I’ve had there was love - of sorts!… but not the kind that I’m talking about.  It was probably more infatuation, which turned into habit, that turned into resentment and finally ended up being, well, nothing…

Anyway, that wasn’t what I was going to talk about.  Making the first cuppa tea of today, I was deep in thought after reading the article that someone re-tweeted on Twitter.  The author was on about relationships in ‘social media’ (Twitter, Facebook, blogs plus more I suppose it meant), that these relationships aren’t real or that somehow they don’t matter or that you are being used or are using the people you communicate with (more businesses in this case, I think!).  And then I thought, hang on, wait a minute, that isn’t strictly true.  Is it?  I have blogged for over two years now and there are people who comment on my blog occasionally that I have never met and yet somehow I feel that there is a relationship there, a friendship, a connection.  So my first question is this, do you think it’s possible to be friends with someone whom you have never met in your entire life and perhaps you never will?  Is it possible to feel their pain when something doesn’t quite go in the right direction?  Or to feel so happy that something has gone totally right for them?  I mean, in the days before the internet there was such a phenomenon as pen pals, who would put pen to paper and write letters to each other having never met before, and never having the intention of meeting either but this was your ‘pal’.  So how can people you ‘follow’ on Twitter not be your ‘pen pal’?  Here’s what I think…  I think that you can build relationships via the web.  If you are anything like me (a little bit shy and reserved) these are people you probably would never have come across in your real life if you didn’t have the internet – a blog, a Facebook page, a Twitter page.  I see these outlets (for want of a better word) as a place to find things out (Twitter, Facebook), to express my thoughts and ideas (my blog), to connect with like-minded people (Twitter, Flickr, my blog), to hear the latest product news (from companies) and to keep in touch with friends and family (Facebook, email).  Talking of companies, yes there are companies out there who are using this whole social media thing for their own ends, to sell their products and maybe that’s how businesses are evolving these days, perhaps Twitter is the new junk mail?  But me, I see Twitter as the new pub, the new hangout, the gang hut, the maths corridor at the back of the school where me and my pals used to hang out, eat lunch and drink Irn Bru whilst talking about boys.  I suppose what I’m really saying is that yes I think you can build relationships via the web, and as in real life face-to-face connections there are good and bad relationships and for the bad you always have the following options:  ‘delete as a friend’, ‘unfollow’ or ‘block’.  Talking about Twitter specifically I’m not into the whole you follow me so I automatically follow you back.  Everyone I follow is there because I am interested in what they have to say in their Tweets, whether that be actual people, celebrities or companies.  Hopefully people that follow me are interested in what I have to say to but I guarantee there are followers who I know are not one bit interested – companies, ‘I can get you more follower’ peddlers, get rich quick schemes and even the person/company that followed me because I spoke about bacon! Weird.

Here’s another question:  Would you miss someone you connected with if they suddenly disappeared?  I most certainly would and I’m not afraid to say it.  I would miss my favourite bloggers if they suddenly stopped posting.  I would miss my favourite Tweeters if they stopped Tweeting.  And it’s not necessarily that i know any of these people because I realised last week that I’ve only ever met 2 people i follow on Twitter.  I’ve met one of my favourite bloggers.  There are people on Twitter that i’d love to meet but probably never will due to geographical location and status – I mean Lance Armstrong is never gonna do a Tweet-Up bike ride around Stirling now is he?!?!  Maybe he will!  I can but live in hope.  There are a few people that i’m hopefully going to meet at the Twestival tomorrow evening and I can add them to my people i’ve actually met list that will soon appear on my Twitter page! 

And so these are just some of my thoughts on this whole ‘social media’ and building relationships thing.  (By the way when i say relationships what i mean is friendships, connections, acquaintances).  No big revelations or dictatorships here.  No siree.  Just me, my thoughts and probably too much information at the beginning of this post, but you know me, once i start i go off on tangents.

Anyway i’m interested to hear your thoughts.  Leave a comment whether you agree or disagree.

Ange xx

PS music update (cos i’ve not done one in a while) Linda got me the GLEE album for my birthday and it’s been on in the car for the past 2 weeks.  It’s actually pretty great.  I’ll loan you it if you want :o)