Strange Week

Any of you who know me will be aware that I am not 'into' fiction. I am a firm believer that truth is stranger. If my family want me to watch a film they always tell me that it is 'a true story'. I was half way through the Matrix before it dawned on me that it wasn't fact based!

So why am I telling you this? I have had a very strange week and I have a feeling my life is going to get a lot stranger.

It started with a tweet.....

I - reluctantly - joined Twitter a whlie ago. I joined Facebook after being persuaded by some friends at college and quite enjoyed it for a while. But then I got a bit bored with it when I realised that I was spending a lot of time there, time that I should have been spending on something more productive. I gave up to social networking eventually just 'popping on' occasionally to see if anything new was happening.I kept hearing about Twitter and Tweets and eventually decided to have a look. After I joined, my Twitter page was abandoned for quite some time until I discovered a few college friends again on the site.That was the beginning of a new form of time-wasting (Sorry Twiiter friends, it's nothing personal!) I started tweeting and then I decided to start this blog - another new experience.Once more I seem to find myself in cyberspace almost as much as I am in the real world.

I got a little bit excited about Twitter when I discovered that famous people used it and I started to follow some of my favourite people, mainly comedians because I like a good laugh. I follow Steve Martin, Eddie Izzard and paul Merton to name a few but I soon discovered that famous people don't talk to mere mortals such as me.

In April 2009 I noticed a tweet from Paul Merton inviting people to join The Land of Grimney. I had a look and decided to join but being the technophobe that I am I couldn't work out how to navigate the site. I tried, again unsuccessfully to upload some poems to the site quite recently and emailed the admin team to ask for help. I received no reply and once again the site was abandoned.

This brings you up to date with my background in social networking so what happened to make this week so strange?

Firstly, I received an email from a wizard - I kid you not! Out of the blue I received an email from someone by the name of 'Word Wizard.' The email was to advise me that my email to them had 'slipped through the net' - I don't think there was any pun intended. I won't bore you with the details but I have spent most of this week in the Land of Grimney having conversations with all sorts of strange beings. I have a friend called Philomena who is a mermaid and works behind the bar at Holmes tavern, which is where I've spent most of my time - as you would expect. Philomena took me for a ride on her Kelpie to a lake where I met an ugly monster by the name of the Gwump.

Back in the real world I am receiving emails from my wizard, friend who is advising me about my character in Grimney! For someone who has never had any interest in fantasy, fairies, witches, monsters and so on, I have quite enjoyed my visits to this strange land. Maybe I'm discovering my lost childhood or maybe I'm finally losing the plot, big time, I don't know but I'm enjoying a completely new experience - and gradually slipping away from Twitter land.

Since 2006 my life has been constantly throwing up new adventures, the first of which was deciding to enroll on a degree course at my local college.

If you had told me ten years ago that I would one day have an English degree, that I would spend half of my time in Cyberspace, that I would be writing (or at least attempting to write) poetry and finally that I would be having an adventure in a fantasy land, I would have assured you that you had got me confused with somebody else!

I have no suitable poem to accompany this week's blog but I am going to attempt to create one. If no poem appears at the end - it means I failed.

Thanks for reading and see you next week - unless I end up in outer space or something, I never know these days!

At a Tavern in Grimney

Meadow Goblinglitter stays

In a nearby magic forest

She whiles away her days

She loves to sit and gaze beneath

The purple snoozle tree

At the comings and the goings

Of that strange community

 There are witches, there are wizards

There are toads and mermaids too

If you like mystery and adventure

You should visit Grimney too.

Oh, alright it's probably not the best poem you've ever read but I only had half an hour......