After being bereaved in 2007, my instinct - despite my marked introversion - was to strike out and find some distraction in meeting some new people.
Although I was an internet early-adopter, I was social media naive but a pal suggested that sharing photographs on Flickr was an easy way for him to see them.
Little did I realise what a transformative this relatively trivial act would have on me.
Probably the best thing of all was that a local bunch of Flickr users regularly met, and did so in pubs!
I'm still friends with several of the people who used to meet up, and pleasant online acquaintances with others. For someone who prefers the tranquil and small numbers of people around, this is some form of nirvana.
Even better, occasionally you can have accidental meetings with those same people. So last night, me and the Best Beer Buddy had arranged to meet Stuart - another Flickr alumni - who, he reminded me, I first met in person 10 years ago when he visited from his then home in Australia. He's now moved back to the UK, and lives just around the corner from us here. But as we sat and caught up, so Niall and Sarah who used to be stalwarts of the Flickr meetups came over and shared our table. There was a bit of photography geek talk before we headed home.
As we walked home, the boy observed that although we generally like our own company, conversations in pubs (whether that be football chat serendipitously in The Orchard on Wednesday or photography chat with pals in the Barley Mow) are definitely things to be enjoyed and treasured.
So much better when the beer is good.
It doesn't matter how we meet these people, but it's great that we do.
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