The (Now) Annual Giraffe Gathering

Yesterday on July 4th I marched happily along the pedestrian bridge over the Thames from Embankment Station to the South Bank. A Jamaican man played La Bamba on his steel drums which really put me in the party mood. As I approached Giraffe I saw Robin and Fairyhedgehog deep in conversation whilst patiently waiting to be seated.

"Hello Ladies!" I cried, arms outstretched to embrace my dear friends.

"Janey!" they returned in unison and the three of us shared a big hug.

You see, this is the great thing about the friendships I have formed on the internet amongst the writing community - they are true and deep running friendships between like-minded people. And I gotta say it's just like meeting one's oldest and dearest friends when you meet in the flesh.

Introductions were made to FHH's Beloved and Robin's husband JB and we were shown to our table. For various reasons we actually moved table twice after that but soon after we'd finally settled in along came Polenth and Whirlochre to join out motley crew.

Then we ordered our 1st bottle of wine .....

L-R Robin,Whirl, Polenth, me and Gina

The Evil Editor made an appearance too - albeit in picture form. He happily kept the salt and pepper mills happy whilst we nattered on.

Polenth and Fairyhedgehog get a flash of Whirl's socks

Many people wondered if Whirlochre was actually a real person. Just to prove it was really him he flashed us his stripy socks. Obviously FHH was gobsmacked but I noticed Polenth had a wry and knowing smile.

"Yes ladies the socks are real but you'll have to wait for a chillier day before I break out the kilt."

Well he is adorably cheeky!

Many bottles of wine later we had to part company even though there was so much more left to say. I guess we'll just save it for next time.

Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!

I love these meets.

I wonder if anyone has actually figured out that I'm not actually one of The Evil Editor's minions?

Shhh! Keep it shtumm!


***Just a small little aside added much later - Blogger seems to be eating the comments being left but please do leave them because I think I'm getting them on email notification. Well I've seen a couple so far! I have no idea what's going on with my blog though!***

*******UPDATE ON UPDATE: It took 12 hours but eventually they all showed up! YEAY!*******