onionbagblog

This was all rather weird, but then equally just as lovely. I first exchanged emails with Heather around a month or so go. Along with her partner Chris, Heather was planning a holiday of sorts in Wivenhoe - hurrah!

Being fans of Martin Newell, the pop genius of this parish, Heather and Chris googled around to see what the town has to offer. Somewhere along the line they stumbled across m’blog.

Our online conversation developed, and I offered a few suggestions as to what they might like to do whilst over here, drawing upon my own very short and limited knowledge of the town to date.

And then sometime towards the end of November, I was cycling along the Trail and I had a moment of clarity. Hey - I bet I bump into a couple of Americans around the town, and then an awkward moment may follow when we both um and ah about coming over to say hello.

So yeah - further emails were pinged back and forth across the Atlantic, and we arranged a rendez vous outside the Laurel and Hardy post boxes on Wednesday morning.

Charming coffee at the Corner House Cafe, matched by equally charming conversation, and just under an hour later I was back at base, grinning and generally feeling very warm about the whole experience.

Much of what I do is all about online connections that then transcend offline. All the better if they have a #hyperlocal angle. My mid-morning meeting with Heather and Chris encapsulated this form of friendship to perfection.

We talked about their brief stay here, their enjoyment of the Fisherman’s Cottage, the walk out to Alresford, meeting Martin Newell, meeting the station cat and the general slow pace of life that Wivenhoe has a habit of breeding into you.

Of course I had my iPhone with @audioboo fired up - hopeful, but not expectant of documenting our conversation digitally. I just knew that I was in the right company when Heather saw my iPhone, and raised me her own digital audio recorder.

What followed was a very post-modern experience of me recording our visitors, whilst they recorded me. I told you that this online / offline route to friendship is a winner.

A quick pose for a photo quayside, and a joke about how our friends from Rochester arrived in the North Essex estuary, looking forward to seeing the Qwwwaay…

Whoops.

Chris very kindly handed over me a copy of his latest CD, happy in the knowledge that there will always be something of Rochester filed away here in Wivenhoe. It came as no surprise to find out that both are active online with their own podcasts.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the Wivenhoe Tourist Board has been officially formed, but for such an isolated Essex town to generate interest online from the other side of the Atlantic, this really was rather special.

Travel safe, my friends, and please come back to see us again soon.