The Places I Will Go

Friendships are different in this millennium.
In those days, I used to buy Galaxie and scour the penpal column and pick up a pen to write a letter off to someone. I had 2 good penpals then – Phyllis who used to live in PJ and send me posters of Madonna and Diana of Kuching who used to write in lovely longhand and share with me tales of her awful Chemistry teacher.
Dear old Phyllis is now a medical doctor, somewhere. Last I heard she was specialising in eye care and surgery. Diana? Haven’t heard from that woman in decades eversince I left school.
These days, friendships are different. I read someone’s blog, get to know all the juicy details of their lives, their peeves, their passions, their dogs and cats, and then I get to meet them.
And that’s so odd!
I met a fellow blogger on Monday and had a good two hours of nonstop conversation over a Nyonya dinner. In fact, I had read and heard so much about her that it was hard to believe I was actually going out to meet someone I’ve never met – and I was going to have dinner with her!

She had emailed me, saying she was going to be in Penang, and whether I wanted to meet up. Of course I would. I jumped at the chance because we had been reading each other’s blogs for a long time now (and I was one of those privileged few to get a password to her other personal blog) and I read her column every Sunday in The Star even though I don’t have kids (she reviews children’s books).
And I really wanted to meet this person, live.
And so I did. And I had a great time with Daphne.
Daphne is the sort of person who laughs hard and loud, and minces not her words. We both enjoyed going down memory lane, as we are about the same age(she thinks I’m “young”) but we both remembered The Electric Company show and all those shows of the 80s. Ahem – A Team, Incredible Hulk, Macgyver, etc.
She tried telling her aunt that she was going out to dinner with someone she had not met before, and that I was a blogger. Her aunt was probably worried that I was going to kidnap Daph (I had gone to pick her up from her aunt’s house).
“I can’t even explain what a blogger is (to her),” she remarked.
Yeah, neither can I. Our way of making friends these days is so unreal to people one generation older. It’s both unnerving and exciting. Of course there are crazies out there. I only meet women bloggers in case you want to know where I draw the line. If I am meeting male bloggers, I drag my husband along. Bodyguard, you know. But thank god I’ve never met any male bloggers. One time I had to meet this guy from KL whom I had been emailing to, and yes, I brought Nic along too. Just in case…..
Of course, Daph isn’t the only blogger I’ve met so far. I’ve met a couple more locally in Penang and there’s one blogger in particular whom I call Old Woman – we meet up for makan when she is back from uni once every few months.
She’s much younger but we share so many things in common. Our love for books. She was the one who introduced me to the RM8 per bowl Beef Kueh Teow in Soup (Gu Bak Kueh Teow) opposite the fire station in town. Lipsmacking good!
That’s the way we make friends in this 21st century I guess!

7 thoughts on “The Places I Will Go”

  1. Do you remember how we first met and eventually become good pals? Unbelieveable but true, true strange circumstances. Whatever it is, the important thing is we came, we met and we became friends.

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  2. HI Keat: You a blogger meh? I thought you and I were uni friends…..remember we went to the same Dhamma camps/retreats? 😉 Hmmm, yes, what is blogging har?
    Vern dear: Very few people meet and automatically ‘click’. I am glad we both enjoy the same things in life. Books and food… remember our first ‘date’? Swatow lane heheh. We do Haagen Dazs when you come back, ok.
    Kate dear: Ah yes, I must write that story ha! It’s so unbelievable that you took the time to track me down, despite my lies to you. I’ve never lied so blatantly before and I had to meet you, who actually followed up with a phone call….. but we’re good friends now so that’s fun to chuckle over.

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  3. I fully agree with what you say. There only a handfull people that I still keep in touch where we have know for more than 10 years. But if they are good, the 5 of them will always keep you busy liau. Y not we make a blogger meet one day? Share and talk about our interest.

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  4. Hi UnkaLeong: Wah, Margaret is a miniceleb man. Everyone wants to meet Margaret. She’s as fat as she can be, and whines a lot when she doesn’t get her Friskies. Also can be quite lazy. I am sure you know that. And hates being groomed. Need to scold sometimes or will do silly things like sashay haughtily into the bedroom, unannounced. Same here, I have not MET you but I know you. Hahaha. Creepy!
    Erina, yes, we could do with a blogger meet someday. 😉 Good friends are hard to find. Good blogger friends —- even harder to find!

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