Our day

Last Friday I met my pen-pal for the first time. Does that mean she is no longer my pen-pal? I think it may well do.

We had an away day to a popular city. Chosen because it was only two hours by train for both of us. And, thankfully, the trains behaved themselves. In terms of scheduling ‘our day’ ran like clockwork.

The day wasn’t about being tourists, it was a convenient place to meet and to start to get to know each other. A way to animate our erstwhile predominantly written based friendship.

My pen-pal had “the whole Red Polka Dot meets Purple vibe” going on which made for easy spotting as I met her off her train. Right from the beginning we started chatting with ease. Beforehand I think both of us were a tad concerned that we might run out of things to say. Not one bit. We chatted more or less constantly yet we only seemed to scratch the surface of us.

We drank coffee, we lunched. I didn’t get as many chips as I should have done and there was a hint of garlic in the air. After lunch we toddled off to see the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Victoria Miro. Not an easy place to find. But it was well worth finding. I’m a big fan of Grayson. I love his work. I like the way he weaves so much into his pictures; words and colourful images merge. Each time you look at his work you see something new. Check it out.

Our day went so quickly and before we knew it we were sitting in the Bree Louise, a real ale pub close to Euston station having a last drink before my pen-pal caught her train home.

I think we have established a friendship that will last. I hope we have. When, where and whether we’ll meet again remains to be seen but I hope we do.

It was a really good day.