Friends

I am blessed to have friends spread all over the country and indeed all over the world. What I don't have is friends in this town which is starting to have a strange effect on me...

I once saw a sketch by Oscar Kightley, a very funny Samoan, in which he told the story of an advert on NZ TV as if it were his own. He started by explaining that he was at a party and was telling this anecdote to his friends. I watched without noticing for a while just what the story was. Then I started to realise that it all sounded rather familiar (the ad was for safe driving and was on TV a lot...). Finally, he finished by saying something along the lines of but much funnier than "and then I realised that I was telling the story of an advert and that was my only anecdote. It was at this point I knew I needed to get out more."

So the point of this? I'm starting to see characters in various TV programmes as my friends...Mostly, it isn't new telly - it isn't the soaps or other bits that I might watch "live", it is more the characters that I go back to when I'm feeling a little down, need some comfort watching. Spaced or Black Books or 'Allo 'Allo or Flight of the Conchords... (As an aside...if you don't know any of these, rectify it! There's plenty on YouTube as a start...) I've started thinking of these characters as my friends (ok, maybe not Bret and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords so much...) I haven't yet found myself telling stories about them (though that is probably only because I have no friends to tell the stories too) but I am a little worried that it can't be long before I lose the boundaries between reality and start telling stories that simply aren't true.

Anywho, you have been warned! You may need to filter all content on here from now on to be sure there isn't a liberal dose of plagiarism going on!