Meeting of the minds
Posted on January 25th, 2008 by Richard Catto 2,198 views
I’ve recently met, in the flesh, two young woman bloggers that I first encountered online last year via their blogs.
On July 28 2007 11:54 AM, Candy Tothill wrote a blog entry about FaceBook:
What started as simple curiosity has turned into a full-blown fascination. Appealing to my general interest in the human condition, my narcissistic tendencies and my fundamental need to network, it has consumed hours – no – days of my life of late. Facebook is that of which I write. Face-F-ing-Book!
Two days later I found Candy’s post via a search for ‘facebook’ on amatomu and made a casual decision that, little known to me at the time, was to have profound consequences for me.
I wrote a comment on her blog entry:
Richard Catto said on July 30th, 2007 at 7:35 AM:
I created a facebook login months ago to post some comments on a facebook forum. I had no intention of developing a profile or amassing friends or etc.
And then somehow, people found me. How / why I don’t know / care to know.
They sent me invitations to friend them. I accepted, lest they be offended.
Now THEY are demanding I put a picture of myself up there!
When will this madness end?
At that time, back then in the Dark Ages of Ms. Tothill’s wonderful blog, I had to wait 5 days for her to reply. Today, that is unheard of! Inside Candy is now so popular and so well trafficked that it is hard competition to be the first to comment on her blog articles, and one can expect to hear back from her within hours at the most.
Sheena Gates and I, collected Candy from Cape Town International Airport yesterday afternoon and we proceeded to discover that Candy is just as interesting and exciting in person as she is online. Sheena is the other woman blogger mentioned above.
On September 7 2007, 13h35, Sheena wrote a blog entry on Wibble:
I’ve just heard on the news that the mother of Madeleine McCann has been hauled in for questioning on the suspicion of her involvement with her daughters disappearance.
Bitch. If she’s guilty, I hope they hang her.
Two days later (again), whilst browsing wibble, I found Sheena’s post there and was inspired to write the following comment to her (which also had profound consequences for me):
On September 9th, 2007 name: Richard Catto says:
The woman has been declared a suspect and you all are already baying for her blood!
Honestly, I think that is a sick opinion to express publicly. Hold it privately if you must, but spewing hate online offends.
Furthermore, I’ll have you all know that even if (and that’s a BIG if) she is guilty, The European Union does not have capital punishment because it is BARBARIC.
Pat yourselves on the backs, you all, for being barbarians.
After posting that comment, I went over to Sheena’s blog, which at that time was still hosted on blogspot, and read some of her posts. It was there that I discovered the reason why Sheena was so emotional about Madeleine McCann – she had lost an infant daughter herself. So I felt a bit bad about what I had written and contacted the administrator of Wibble and asked her to convey an apology to Sheena, which she duly did.
The next day, Sheena replied to my comment saying that she had received my message from the wibble admin via FaceBook. So I went over to FaceBook and searched for Sheena’s profile, and sent her a message there.
This is the message I sent her on 12:43 AM Sep 11 2007:
Is this Sheena the Barbarian?
Cheers,
Richard "Conan" Catto
I got a sassy reply from Sheena, and so began an online friendship that has lasted several months and led to her coming to stay with me on January 10 2007 when I collected her from Cape Town International airport two weeks to the day before Candy joined us for a brief visit yesterday.
So what I’m saying here is that it is through the medium of blogging that we three strangers were able to get to know each other and form online friendships that translated comfortably into real life, face to face, friendships.
We knew each other before we first laid eyes on one another.
It was quite a heady and exciting feeling laying eyes on Sheena for the first time as she waltzed into the visitors lounge of Cape Town International Airport. She had a ready smile, a bouncy gait and even bouncier boobs. 
We were slightly late collecting Candy and Sheena went in to meet her while I waited by the car, lest it be clamped in the Stop and Go zone. So my first glimpse of Candy was of a slight, incredibly thin long-haired beautiful brunette woman in the distance, holding the long extended handle of an elegant and compact travelling case.
And then began the ride home in my cantankerous car, now dubbed Bartholomew by Candy. We fell into conversation and I acted as tour guide, pointing out various spots along the N2 and regaling them with (true) tales of my exploits in those regions.
Our amiable visit was threatened to be cut short by the looming meeting between Candy and someone she would rather avoid, but felt obliged to see. At the last minute, en-route to her hotel, the person cancelled (via SMS) and so Candy invited us in to dine with her in the hotel’s restaurant.
Time sped by as we enjoyed each other’s company which was briefly interrupted by a giant cochroach whose speedy dartings under quaking legs terrified my companions. It crunched satisfyingly under my Nike shoe, after a brief chase around the restaurant. The Dutch party adjoining us, applauded.
Around 11PM we finished off with coffee and was amused when Candy ordered ice cubes from our waiter to put in her cappuccino to cool it down. Now that’s an interesting quirk and something I would probably never have discovered via online chat alone.
She’s flying back to JHB today, but promised that she would come see us again soon.
I can’t wait.
Tags: Candy Tothill, meeting online friends, Sheena Gates
Filed under Candy Tothill, Online friendships, Sheena Gates | 3 Comments »
