Meeting people

The first time in my life I had to start over completely was when we moved to New York in February 2007. No friends, no car, no house, no job…even no cat (I had to leave poor LeRoy Brown behind in Cape Town with a friend). And it was damn tough. Much tougher than I could have ever anticipated. But then you meet someone who introduces you to someone else and before you know it, you have a steady group of friends. You find a place to live and with the help of many trips to Ikea and mom-sent gifts from ‘back home’, you make it home. You stroke strange cats in the street and learn to rely on public transport. Soon, you feel comfy and relatively settled. And you tend to forget how hard those first few months were.

Then you up and you do it all over again. And, like a fool, you think this time will be different. It’s not. Moving continents is damn tough. And I’ve added another whopper to the mix by deciding to not get a job, but rather, I’ve started my own company. Nothing like a challenge to make life really tough, right? So, six months in, we have a home. We have once again become quite acquainted with the London public transport system and we still stroke the neighbour’s cats! But the friends bit have been much harder this time.

In New York I was lucky enough to have found Annie shortly after we had both moved to the strange place and we truly were one another’s salvation. This time we’re having to rely on lengthy Skype calls with her in Hong Kong and me over here on the soggy island! But I haven’t yet found my new Annie. I’ve searched a bit, but am lacking the motivation to go out there and find my new friends. It’s exhausting.

But this week my Google searches offered a new solution in the form of Meetup.com! Groups for any interest or activity you can imagine! Need to go urban hiking? No problem. Want to knit? No problem. With my serious book addiction it was only a matter of time before I found a booming bookclub, right? Enter the Wimbledon Bookclub stage right! It’s a different format from any of the ones I’d belonged to before, but it has me excited about meeting people who love to read. On the list are The Help, The Poisonwood Bible and one of the scariest books I’ve ever read (seriously, it changed the way I’ll view basements forever…): Let The Right One In.

Who knows, maybe my new Annie is out there somewhere!