If we were having coffee, I’d wish you a cheery hello and ask you about your week. Hope you had a great week. Saturday is here and you must be having a relaxing weekend.
As for me, I am tucked in a cozy quilt with a hot cup of coffee, and I am all set to have a chat with you. You must pardon me if you see me soaking in the beauty and the tranquility of the deep blue Arabian Gulf. Yes, I can watch the small waves lashing the shore with an occasional speedboat zipping past my view, from the comfort of my bed.
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you excitedly that I met a blogging friend in Kuwait earlier this week.
Now, there’s nothing new about meeting virtual friends from the blog world in the real world. After reading fellow bloggers’ blogs where we share our lives, passions, interests, fears, insecurities and much more, we get a peek into their lives. Their messages and comments of support and encouragement, affection and smiles, truly warms our hearts.
If we were having coffee, I’d ask you that have you observed that finding another person who has a set of thoughts and beliefs that gel well with your sensibilities, or reading their well thought-out comments are enough to develop feelings and a sense of relationship with someone you have never met. A few exchanges in the virtual world are enough to give you the feeling that you ‘know’ that person. Of course, there have been instances, where a single comment has made me edge away from that person.
So, it is seems natural to take these virtual friendships to the next level by meeting in real life! Isn’t it?
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I have met quite a few bloggers in real life. And meeting them was like we had known each other forever.
So, when I met this blogging buddy in Kuwait, it was just the same. Moments after greeting each other we were comfortably talking as though we’d known each other for years. But here’s the catch. We had known each other not for years, not for months but….for just a month. Yes, you heard it right. We started visiting each other’s blogs during the November NaBloPoMo and a month later, we met in real life. Yes, I met the lovely and amazing Scorpria from Alphabet World!
In one of her blog posts she mentioned that she is in Kuwait and then I told her that I’d be in her city for some time. And that started it all first through comments on blogs and then emails which later moved to WhatsApp messages. And when we met, we talked non-stop about so many things and got to know so much more about each other. Yes, we also shared that this was the craziest meeting ever and how our family and friends were apprehensive of our meeting. And how we had to field their questions like “Would it be safe? What would it be like to meet someone you’ve only ever ‘spoken’ to online? Would you still like them? Would you get along?…”
For people who are not from the blog world, it is hard for them to understand that we bloggers are normal ordinary people with regular lives. But I totally understand their trepidation and concerns.
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that the best part of meeting Scorpria was that she invited me as her guest to ‘An Evening of Christmas Carols’ which was hosted by the British Ambassador to Kuwait at The British Embassy. It was all the more exciting for this was probably my first and the last time to be at any British Embassy. LOL!
I cant tell how nostalgic it was to listen to the Christmas Carols which I had last heard and sung in school decades ago.
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that it was kind of bummer that we couldn’t click a picture of ours. And that’s because phones were not allowed at the event and we both left our phones back in our rooms. We are hoping to meet again before I leave from Kuwait and I am sure we would not stop at clicking just one picture.
If we were having coffee, I’d take your leave, for tomorrow is a working day for me and I need to prepare a few things. Here’s wishing you a fabulous week and see you soon again! Take care!
Linking this to #weekendcoffeeshare
42 Responses
Excellent! How great that you two were able to meet in person!
Yes, it was lovely meeting a virtual friend 🙂
There are some bloggers that I count as good friends even though we’ve never met in the flesh. I have only met bloggers that I knew before blogging, but I do send emails to a few, chat through texts and IM and even did some video chats with one. Anyway, I’m glad you were able to meet in person. It must have been cool to go to the British Embassy too. Sounds like a great time!
I hope you have a good week.
Yes, it’s the same for me too. And isnt it wonderful to connect so beautifully with these virtual friends like we have known them for years!!
British Embassy was cool and so was the evening.
Wishing you a wonderful 2017, Trent!
Oh yes! I know those family apprehensions 🙂 For that matter i dont get to meet fellow bloggers in Singapore… If u come here do let me know 😀
Oh yes, definitely, without fail and hope we meet sometimes soon!! 🙂
It was great to meet your follower blogger in person. The visit to British embassy was a plus. Have pleasant week.
Yes, it was a wonderful meeting Priya and we had a good time too. Thanks Betty. Here’s wishing you a wonderful new year!
I am glad you are having a good time in Kuwait.
Thanks SG!
How lovely to meet a blogging friend, Shilpa! ♥ Glad you’re cozied up with coffee. The photo of the coffee seeds reminded me of those days when we’d roast the seeds at home, and i would love to eat them! ♥
There’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans. Though have never done it at home, but I have seen it done at a friend’s home and at cafes. Oh, never knew that, but now that you shared, I would like to eat roasted coffee beans too! Thanks for sharing, Vidya ♥
I can imagine what fun you two must have had, Shilpa! I love this idea of meeting fellow bloggers since I met some fellow bloggers last year. I met SId, Roshan and Jaibala at the Blogadda awards at Mumbai last September and it was exhilarating! For me, the virtual world was still an alien place, despite being a blogger for 2 years. And, meeting someone I had only ‘read’ did make me a tad nervous, frankly! But, it warmed my heart when I discovered that there are some genuine people in this virtual world we can trust blindly!
I am glad you had a lovely time! Now, let’s hope you and I get to meet some day, my dear namesake! 🙂
Lots of love!
I know what you mean. I was apprehensive initially of meeting blogging buddies. But now I dont miss an opportunity of meeting them.
I would love to meet you too, Shilpa 🙂
Two strange things here. First, just yesterday I was telling my son about Christmas Carols and how I loved it when the singers would come to our neighbourhood and sang for about 15-20 mins. Second, I so agree with the meeting with virtual friends. i met a group of book bloggers this year and loved it. The happiness to discuss common interests was great. And i love that desk of yours looking out to the Arabian Gulf.
I remember you meeting the TBC gang. I am sure you all must have discussed all about books and authors!!
Oh, I loved this view… I am missing it now!
How awesome is it that you get to meet a fellow blogger?! Thanks for sharing that with us! 🙂
It’s great to take virtual friendship into the real world. Thanks for dropping by Claire 🙂
The room has a beautiful view, Shilpa! It would indeed be great to meet a blogger friend in person. I have never met any due to the fact that I stay in Kerala and all of my blogger friends are from outside the state. I regret it and sometimes wish I were in any of the other states for some purpose during the blogger meets. Anyway, you seem to have had a wonderful time 🙂
Yes, I had a room with a great view!!
I met most of my blogging buddies during these blogger meets and some I have met when I was traveling to their cities! 🙂
How wonderful that the two of you could meet in person! Yes I have felt like I know a fellow blogger after reading their posts and comments. We have such a great blogging community. Enjoy that view!
Agree with you, it’s wonderful to find a connect with bloggers and meeting them is taking that bond a step ahead! Thanks Amie!
I like the idea of meeting other bloggers but somehow haven’t gotten around to it too many times. I love that you always make the effort to meet up. That quilt sounds cosy – we hardly get to snuggle up in quilts here because it just isn’t that cold.
I remember the evening we spent together… talking about sooo many things and then getting the pics clicked 😀
Hope we meet sometimes soon again.
Come to Jaipur and you can experience really cold winters and snuggling up in quilts is the only option. LOL 😀 Delhi is cold too!! Hope you get to enjoy this aspect of winters too!
Ah! The joy of meeting a fellow blogger is beyond words – the connection is through the blogs and not the person itself but when the meeting does happen, the words and the person integrate.
Lovely to stop by after ages, dear Shilpa. Hope you’ve been well and happy.
So good to see you here, Susan. Long long time. How have you been!
You said it so beautifully. Hope we meet up sometimes soon too 🙂
Wow! So cool that you got to meet a friend from the virtual world. And you are right – we interact so much online, that a connection, and even a strong connection, can be made through blog comments and social media. I would know. But sadly, I haven’t ever met any of my blogger friends in person – yet. Hopefully when I come to India. 🙂
True that. We share such a strong connect with some blogging buddies that it’s hard to believe that we have ‘met’ them virtually. Hope you get to meet some blogging buddies in your next India trip, Shantala! 🙂
Meeting fellow bloggers is fun. I thoroughly understand the family’s reservations about ours meeting strangers because one cannot trust someone who we do not know in person to begin with. But it is really our stories posted online on the blogs which connect us like no other.
I am still laughing at the views and thoughts my family and friends had when I went to a Bloggers meet at Goa for the first time. 😀 Meeting the people behind the blogging stories is so interesting and I would not like to miss this opportunity ever!
Sigh!!!! Shilpa that’s one thing I am yet to experience.. meeting my favourite bloggers. Just doesn’t seem o be happening in my life. But being positive that someday it would.
Hope you get to meet some blogging buddies in 2017, Ramya 🙂
Would love to have the opportunity to meet fellow bloggers in person!
Amen to that, Rosemary 🙂
Excellent! it must have been a wonderful experience to meet a blog buddy. I have never met any of my blog buddies in person, yet everyday my days do not begin without pinging to one another. I have found a number of BFF after joining blogging communities and really am loving the experience.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
Oh yes, our interaction with our blogging buddies is sometimes more than our real life friends 🙂
Thanks Menaka. Wishing you a very happy and wonderful new year too 🙂
Reading your post I felt energetic shilpa, I have never met blogger from another place; I love the way you take initiatives and open yourself to new expereinces in life – a learning for me…. am happy for you 🙂 love and hugs
I am looking forward to meet you, Genevive and hope we meet sometimes soon! ♥
Vow! I am so glad to know that you two met.. it is always so exciting to meet blogger friends…
Yes, it was good that we met 🙂
I love the fact that you had a room with a view of the Arabian Sea.Meeting virtual friends sound like loads of fun.It’s a surprise and fun in equal measures
And to think I never got the change to respond to this post! My Good Lord. I had great plans to post one of my own about our meeting…and then life derailed a bit and I stopped blogging again.
When are you here next!? 🙂