W hen I commented to my parents the other day that - barring blood relatives - I have more close ties in the States, than I do over here, my mum sagely noted that very few of the groups of friends I'd had over the years seemed to overlap with into each other much. It was a telling observation and though I'm not sure how I feel about that in hindsight, there's no denying that on close examination, it's quite true. I'm like a human Venn Diagram!

I tried to maintain contact with those I could or wanted to, but within a few years my social life was quite different. A few girlfriends came and went as did the people I worked with. Jobs changed and though I was still in Leeds, I'd end up frequenting different parts and events than I had before. I'd bump into people from time to time, but mostly the world was just too big for that to happen too often - though when it happened it was in the most unlikely ways. My closest friends over the next ten years or more were a fellow journo (Tony) and a comic-book artist (Mike) but , if memory serves me right, they probably never met each other more than a once or twice in a whole decade - totallly different people with completely social groups and different outlooks whom I usually divided my time between.

The Highlander franchise changed my life in completely profound, positive, personal and professional ways in the late 90s. What initially started out as coverage of just another bog-standard genre show brought me into contact with some fascinating people I'd never have met otherwise. In itself it was a great leveller - I remember sitting at a table in Anaheim, Los Angeles in 1998 and talking with someone who worked for NASA, a school-teacher, a Vicksburg history-buff, a government officer, a quite stunning redhead from the Mid-West... and thinking that one common thread had brought these different people together to that one table and how interested I was. What were the odds that brought us together? It was a strong enough thread that it's kept me attached to some of them in a variety of ways ever since.

Yet back in the UK those different friendships I had remained quite separate. Perhaps it's a factor that the way I gelled in with each group was often different and the different roles weren't compatible outside those groups. Oh, who knows?  Some friendships grew or blew out depending on a range of factors - some for reasons I don't even understand to this day but rarely did they cross path in the interims. Sometimes my US friends/girlfriends would meet my UK friends, but usually only briefly during rare visits. Kerry probably bridged the gap more than most but probably only met Tony and his girlfriend two or three times in total. Several friendships grew out of the journalists I attended press events with, but scattered across the country or further afield, it was often a case of downing as much alcohol as we could when we all got together (how's that for a cliche!)  :).

Meeting the likes of HLDU's Carmel Macpherson and the organisation that would become Highlander WorldWide created a whole new professional avenue and another strong friendship as well, something that has allowed more travel and experiences than I could have dreamed of.

Ironically, while being particular about the friendships and relationships I have, I'm more and more in contact with that original group from my teenage years. Karen, after travelling the world, still lives in Leeds with two strapping kids, Simon is back in Yorkshire from the States. I haven't physically met up with them in some time, but at the risk of sounding 'woolly', the original threads - somewhat unwound though they might have been over time - never unravelled completely.


And ten years on from chatting with that wise-beyond-her-years redheaded girl in Anaheim, I'm hoping she'll want me to spend increasingly more time with her in Iowa... and her own group of local friends - some of which I'd like to think are now mine too or will be soon.
 
So, yes, it's true that I seem to have closer ties in the US and that some of my friends will probably never meet other friends, but in a modern electronic world geography is becoming less and less of an obstacle - there's less and less reason to be 'here' when you can be 'there' or 'anywhere'. Though not ideal, I CAN edit Impact purely by sitting at a connected laptop on ANY continent in any time-zone. I can travel around the world only limited by money and not by time (I could be in mid-America in 12hrs, Australia in less than 24).  The Net is no substitute - for the reality of 'being there', especially - but it has opened up that world of 'there' no end.
 
I used to think the world was big. It so IS. But for better or worse - usually in the end for the better...the Net makes it seem almost welcomingly manageable and full of possibilities.
 
*Note: if replying to this blog entry - can you do so via the actual blog site and not via e-mail as otherwise it may not show up.  :)