Little lost errant friendship book comes home!

[fluffymark]

I got home and there it was, hiding innocently in the mail. Something I never really thought I’d see again. Certainly not now, not after all this time. One of my friendship books has come back to me! *stunned*.

And it’s very pretty indeed and full of sparkly goodness. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Ok, a quick explanation. A long long time ago, so we’re talking 2001 here, I created lots of friendship books. This particular one is spider shaped, with a huge sparkly spider on the front, and the first page covered in bats, sparkly stars, vast amounts of glitter and a few interesting things about me. Tragically very goth, but I have to admit the sparkly bit is very me. The other friendship books were of similar sparkly goodness. Then I took this huge pile of friendship books and optimistically posted them out into the big great unknown.

And then I never heard anything from them since. I assumed long ago they’d all got lost.

I mean, that was 4 years ago, my address in it is Leslie Road, where I lived with panzerpenguin. I’ve moved twice since then, and am about to move again now. It’s taken its own sweet time, travelling not just all around England, but also Germany, Denmark and Finland and all sorts of other exciting places. And now it’s somehow found it’s way home, and even to the correct address. And it’s FULL of pretty things and sparkly things, telling me who’s had it and where it’s been, and all sorts of highly interesting things. Yay!

I am hugely impressed. And to think if it had arrived just another 2 weeks later to this address, it would have gotten lost too. So close to missing it. But it arrived and am happy it did. *amazedsmile*

Thinking of which, I’ve still no idea when I’m moving to the new flat. I don’t know when I’m getting the keys. It’s incredibly frustrating not knowing how quickly to pack things. Much of my stuff has been packed and ready for weeks, including all of my books and pretty clothes. I’d been hoping to get out to a few things last weekend but when I realised I’d nothing nice to wear I panicked and hid and stayed in (apologies to bad_faery and anyone else who may have wanted to see me). I want to start moving things, dammit, and making the new place pretty and mine. And I can’t do anything. Another 2 weeks like this and I’ll have nowhere to live at all, and that will very bad. *eeeeeeeeeeep*

Comments

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

How cool! And how incredible that it found its way back to you!

[atreic.livejournal.com]

That's so cool!

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Oh, that friendship book story is wonderful!!!

How does it work? I don't think I'd ever even heard of such a thing.

Another 2 weeks like this and I’ll have nowhere to live at all, and that will very bad. *eeeeeeeeeeep*

*hugs hugs hugs*

You do know that if you really are stuck, you could come and stay with us for a few days or summit? I know that's probably not very helpful though stuff-wise, and of course the commute would be a bit long...

[fluffymark]

Friendship books (FBs for short) act a bit like a penpal networking tool, although they're a lot of fun just as themselves. Basically, you create a small booklet with about 10-20 pages, decorate the first page something pretty along with your address and some info about yourself, and post it off to a penpal. Then they create the next page, put their details on, and forward it to someone else, and so on. Eventually, assuming it doesn't get lost, whoever fills out the last page then posts it back to the original creator. Which is all nice and pretty in itself, but it's also used to find new penpals. If you get sent an FB (either completed back to you, or a partial one you're forwarding on) you can look where it's been and if you spot someone who sounds interesting, write a letter introducing yourself to them, and if they want to start a correspondance they can write back, and they you can start directly exchanging FBs with your new penpal. It appears to result in highly linked penpal networks - I'm aware of a penpal/FB meta-network of alternative culture types linked all over Northern Europe. The vast majority of whom are female. Sure there must be good reasons for all this. Someone's bound to write academic papers on this phenomenon sometime.