About fourteen years ago, when I was living in Wales…..on what was a cold, grey winter’s day, I was sitting alone on a bench at the Cardiff railway station waiting for the train to take me to Abergavenny. A young woman sat next to me, and we smiled at one another……and then we began to chat.
The young woman’s name was Fran and she was on her way to meet her husband who was working in England. Although a brief encounter, we sensed a connection and exchanged contact details…..and then went our merry ways.
At this point, I must explain why I am breaking up the text in this story with images from Italy. Fran, was born in Sardinia…..and later in the story, more of the Italian connection will be revealed.
All the photographs shown here are from the beautiful Amalfi Coast, Italy – not Sardinia but close enough in colour and atmosphere.
Sometime after our first encounter we did re-connect. Fran and her husband Neil, and their children came to visit me in Crickhowell, (The Magical Town of Crickadoon), and I visited them in Cardiff – we became friends.
Fast forward to 2008 when I first started to write my blog, and dipped my toes into the waters of social media.
Once I became active on FB, I of course connected with Fran…..but here’s where the small world stuff really begins to come into play.
Simultaneously I met a woman through FB named Creola….who happens to be from Sardinia. We connected because our our love of colour and painting…..and for quite a long time have enjoyed a virtual friendship.
Several months ago, Creola said she would be visiting London in February…(at this point I must explain that Creola speaks no English and my knowledge of Italian is limited to say the very least)……however, I have always found it easier to communicate through imagery and this was clearly the case for Creola, and when in doubt internet translation helped a great deal.
In our world of pigeon English and Italian, I understood that Creola and her (son) would be staying in an hotel in London.
Then, what was seemingly out of the blue to me, my friend Fran, e mailed to say that Creola would be visiting them in Wales and hopefully they would all come to London on Friday 7th to meet with me.
This was the first time that I realised there was some sort of a connection between Fran and Creola……!
On Friday afternoon, Fran, her husband Neil, Creola and her husband Ceasera (not son) arrived at my little flat, and we proceeded to have much fun.
It turned out that Fran and Ceola had gone to school together and have known one another since early childhood! It also turned out that Fran speaks Italian fluently, and so was the translator for the evening. Ceasera’s English was pretty good, and all in all we connected once again through music, art, colour, laughter, gestures, and so on…..oh and a little Sardinian dancing thrown in the mix.
I have been fortunate in my life to experience many ‘six degrees of separation’ moments, but thought this was a particularly lovely one to share.
We are all now planning a painting spree in Sardinia….watch this space.
A Bientôt
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My Life as an Artist (2) 