Monday 19th January 2025

I have been online for a quarter of a century now. Off and on. Mostly for good, but seen some bad.

Back in 1999/2000 I joined an electronic penpal site, and I made two friends, Dawn and Penelope.

I wrote to both, not every day, not every week, no every month, certainly not in the last few years, but these are friends in every sense of the word.

I followed their lives, and they followed mine, relationships failed, new ones started, and we hoped that each of us would live happily ever after.

Pen fell ill last year, had times in hospital, came out, she posted memes as usual. Then she stopped. A message over Christmas was that her mobility issues might now be permanent.

And then, I woke up this morning to a message from her brother on her account that Pen had passed yesterday.

The internet game me friendships, and a marriage, that lasted quarter of a century, friendships that were every bit as real as with hose I wok with or went to school with.

Not sure what I am saying here, but I learnt from them that avatars and screen names sometimes have real people, with real lives.

I never met Pen, but I will miss my friend.

I think those mails to potential penpals is how the blogging started, certainly when I moved to Matchdoctor, there was a blogging function, though USA-centric, I started to write, but the negative comments outweighed the positives, so moved on here in time, and really never looked back.

Although I write for myself, it still blows me away when I am told the folks read these posts.

Anyway.

Monday.

Back to work, and my two colleagues are on the road to Poland so I won't have many folks to talk to, but there is work, of course.

There is the pain that is travel expenses. Even though I have the receipts and all, once submitted the systems shows errors and I have no idea what to do.

The computer says no.

Outside it is cold and grey again, just above freezing, but not too inviting to go for a walk, even if I wrap up.

Lunch is warmed up cottage pie. I say warmed up, I fry it up to the meat and potato go crispy, then eat it watching something on YouTube.

But otherwise the gay grinds on, and the day fades and goes dark. And all through it, the cats slept on.

Until it was four: meow?

So, the cats we fed, and I clear the living room up, put away the washing up and get ready to cook dinner.

Dinner was curry. Oddly, the first one I have made. I have had a recipe book for a decade, but never used. And when I looked at it yesterday I found the recipes hard to follow and also full of ingredients I have no chance of ever getting let alone have in the house.

But the internet is full of recipes, and I found a fine chicken jalfrezi recipe, which I rustle up.

It soon smelled like a curry house in here.

I boiled some rice, and once cooked and dished up, turned out it was pretty good. So good we both had seconds.

And then there was yet more footy on the tellybox, Chelsea v Wolves. Ended up 4-1 to Chelsea, but good enough entertainment.