We’ve been closer to home today with a trip to the bowling alley, a drink at Gary’s house and a walk in the woods taking up our time. Nothing really remarkable about the day really other than spending it with a man who was a total stranger to us only a few short months ago.

PBASE has been responsible for some fantastic friendships in my life and so I didn’t hesitate to invite Ian to stay at our house despite never having met him before. He told us that his family and friends had all thought him mad to be prepared to come and stay in the home of total strangers and equally, my work colleagues thought I would not be returning to work tomorrow because I’d been hacked to death in the night by an axe murderer – of course that’s what always happens to people who invite strangers into their homes.

Interestingly though, it isn’t like meeting strangers when we meet PBASE people, it’s like meeting old friends because we spend so much time chatting to one another online and seeing something of the world of other people through the photos.

Ian wasn’t quite how I imagined he would be. I expected a real ‘Jack the Lad’ character, cracking jokes and larking about all the time, based on our Pmail chats. Instead we found a shy, kind, sensitive man who has turned out to be a real gem in a different way from how we expected.

We’ve chatted and laughed our way through a bit of ‘our world’ with him and he says although he’s seen into our lives, it was still not quite what he expected. It must have been something of a shock to his system to find that we eat our evening meals at 10pm (or sometimes later) and we have a haphazard existence where fate leads us most of the time rather than us leading fate….if you see what I mean. I think one of the key differences comes from the lack of kids in this house – I have a suspicion that you need to be more disciplined and have a more focused routine if you have children around.

Anyway, this photo is David and Ian in a serious moment – I can’t remember what they were looking at when I took the photo but it’s clearly engaging both of them. It may have been the fortifications at Caesar’s Camp – an iron-age fort in the woods where we walk the dogs. Maybe one of them can recall?