Braving the new world

Isn’t it nice when things start to fall into place like when you are first getting to know new people?

Moving to a new town means braving the world. One of my strategies for this is to join a book group. As I read a lot anyway it seems an obvious thing to do but also it tends to attract interesting people. It has proved a useful way to open doors in the past. So of course I did that here. I have so far been to just one meeting just before Xmas. A sizeable group bigger than ones I have been to in the past and luckily I had been able to read the book they were discussing. As they also talked about other things they were reading and films they were watching it proved an excellent intro to some new faces. Inevitably some folks stand out: either physically, culturally, ethnically or because of some common ground or life experience which immediately becomes apparent – in this case travel.

This morning I went off to be another one of my opening doors activities, namely attending a Writing Group. I’ve  never done any creative writing before but I thought it might be a good way to stretch the brain and exercise the imagination. There was only one person there when I arrived and I recognised her from the book group. Reintroductions as we’d both forgotten names, followed by a bit of chit chat about the book the group is reading for this month’s meeting, about the writing group was followed by a slow realisation that no one else had turned up. One phone call and it was established we’d both got the starting week wrong and there wasn’t one for another 2 weeks.

Undeterred we continued chatting. I asked about how the group worked, members etc. In the end we did two writing exercises of our own devices each choosing a subject. Quite illuminating to see our different approaches and styles and to contemplate my own first output from the exercise. We then migrated to the local cafe for a cuppa, my new friend then showed me her home. An exchange of telephone numbers later and I find myself walking home an unbelievable 3 hours later. The world felt good.