I hope James gets home okay. He came to visit us this weekend. even though we have only met twice, we have been talking online for quite a while, and in many respects we are pretty similar. I think this weekend, then, was long overdue. The thing with people you meet in the online world is that your friendships never feel concrete until you meet in person. Mind you, at this point I should state that, although it’s how I met the person I hope to one day marry, one should always be cautious about meeting people who you encounter online. In this case, however, I was pretty sure James was who he claimed to be.

What I was less prepared for, though, was his wit. Perhaps for the first time I was struck by how intelligent James is. He has CP, and is doing an MPhil in politics, so I knew he was intelligent, but I didn’t realise quite how bright he is. We were talking last night, and he was throwing out references to lots of writers, many of whom I’d never heard of, let alone read. Even though I didn’t agree with him all the time – for instance, he puts too much emphasis on elitism, which I see as a subjective construct – I found our conversations this weekend very interesting indeed. Speaking face to face with someone, rather than just online, adds an extra dimension to a conversation; I think it lets you understand more.

I think James Cullis went from being an online associate to being a friend this weekend. He is a great guy, and I must say that I love his rather plumy accent. As he said as I saw him off at the station earlier, we really must see each other more regularly than once a year from now on.