Offline Isolation

The reality of my life in Sydney is that in the 9 months I've been here I really haven't made very many friends. That sounds very sad, but it's actually bearable, as slowly and surely I'm building good friendships. I have my lovely friend Kristin who has relocated from The States and is my wine-drinking buddy, I have a wonderful group of school mums who have looked after me since my first day in the school yard, and I have a gorgeous neighbour Melissa (also a wine drinking buddy - there's a theme going on). And of course I have my oldest and dearest friends in NZ.

However, being offline was a reality check for me. You don't realise how much you "chat" with people just by being on the e-mail circuit, I'm not going to stretch to The FaceBook community as those who know me will have seen how bad I am at it still! It's just like a form of being "amongst" people by being online. Even the school mums and I are only really on e-mail kind of chatting, which I love and am grateful to be part of it, but we're not at the pick-up-the-phone-for-a-chat kind of contact yet.

The Husband has been away all week, Kristin is back in the States, I'm offline, it's been a quiet, little bit lonely week. I didn't even go to the butcher, and he's been my friend through those dark days when I first arrived in Sydney (mental check: did I talk to anyone today who was older than 7....yes, the butcher - get my drift)
And to make matters worse, I did one of those e-mails to my "network" - just before my computer died, the kind when I say hi to people I haven't spoken to for ages, fill them in on what I'm doing with the business, and ask for feedback and input. My fabulous network, now that I can see, have been amazing and encouraging, but must now be a tad disappointed in me for not replying. I'd even coldcalled a totally inspirational philanthropist in Sydney and asked for a coffee - we hadn't quite got closure on coffee date and time, and the ball was left silently in my court before I went offline, she surely must be thinking what an oddball I am.

Anyhow dry spell is over, husband is back tonight, and I will now quickly work through my e-mails. And even more exciting, was there was a note from Art with some logos and designs attached. All good and back to work. More to come!