I have an award

Wife in Hong Kong has given me an award. She is a proper expat. Goes to parties where people wear Dior dresses, holidays in exotic locations. I'm sure she says things like "the sun's over the yardarm", whilst I am more likely to say "the sun's over the back yard". But she also talks of the loneliness of the early weeks, the disorientating way everyone else seems to know what is going on, the angst of watching children struggling to adjust... normal expat fodder.


I've abbreviated the blurb a little, because I'm a bit shy of these things. The heart of it is this: This award focuses not on the glory and fanfare of blogging, but in the PROXIMITY to one another through this online-world. This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY--nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement!

This is obviously hogwash as I am totally interested in both prizes and self-aggrandizement (although I'd rather it was spelt with an 's' - aggrandizement that is, not prizes). And as for 'the glory and fanfare of blogging', well, I'd definitely be going for a slice of that, if only I knew where to find it.

Proximity. Yes. I have found lots of that through blogging, though not 'in space, time and relationships'. Proximity of experience. The feeling that if I type some mad thought and send it out there, someone, some lovely person, will write a comment saying "ooh, I know just what you mean". And if I am blog-browsing, I never have to roam far before I find a description of an event that has happened to me, or a reflection, or a feeling, beautifully crafted into words better than my own could have been.

Proximity over great distance. That is exactly what blogging is all about for me, and let me tell you, when you are transported to another continent and expected to make sense of the experience, blogging is gold dust.

There are, of course, a dillion people who I could pass the award on to. I'm going to choose Potty Mummy and Reluctant Memsahib, because one day, one glorious day, we are going to put proximity into action, and come together from three different continents to meet for tea and cakes at Patisserie Valerie on Marylebone High Street. It's not an exclusive occasion. Anyone can join us - in the future reality, or in the current anticipation (which actually, I suspect is just as good).

And Rotten Correspondent, because she and I have just found out that last year, we were in the same city for a week-end, and we didn't know it. We could have met. In real life. Physical proximity: it's no good unless you know about it at the time.