Curtis, Bruce, Rod & Jess

Today has been the day of old friends. It started with an email from Curtis. Curtis is a friend I met during my earliest days on the Internet. Before the worldwide web really made the news, when 28k modems were the fastest thing around, when it was still really quite exciting to be able to chat online to someone on another continent, Curtis and I started exchanging email through the Usenet newsgroup soc.penpals. We had a fair amount in common and have kept in touch over the years. Whenever we are within striking distance, we will pay a visit and catch up. It seems that Curtis has now bought himself a property – something which I am beginning to despair of ever doing again – although his job sounds a little unsettled at the moment. On the up-side, though, he’s off to Australia for a few weeks towards the end of this month and hopes to make a week in England in July.

Bruce, another old friend, had sent me an SMS message a few days ago and I was determined to reply today. We exchanged a few emails. He’s just bought himself a new bike and was suggesting we head out for some trips when the weather gets a bit warmer. He also sent me a recent picture of himself for my website which, in his own words, is ‘a cheesy, E.R.-look-alike shot’ of him in medical blues with a stethoscope slung around his neck.

Roderick and Jessica came over for dinner tonight as well: Both friends from my University days with whom I’ve managed to keep in touch. When I first came to London I lodged with them for almost two years before moving here to Wimbledon with Brett.

They both work in the House of Commons, Rod supporting the IT, while Jess is a Committee Clerk. They also run an online book shop in their spare time. Dinner was a little bit of an out-of-the-microwave affair, but we downed a couple of bottles of decent wine and had a good long chat about theatre, films and politics. It was a very pleasant evening and one that looks like it’s going to become a regular occurrence.

Another high-point was that they brought over a parcel for me from Amazon (I must update my Wish List delivery address!) which contained my Christmas presents from my parents: The Return Of The King extended edition DVDs, The Sundering by Walter Jon Williams (second book of a series I’m reading) and Monarchs of the Nile (a book looking at a number of ancient Egyptian rulers. I find the ancient Egyptians fascinating.)

So that was my day.