[Feathers]

Had a 4am virtual meet with a bunch of my friends from another forum. Not great timing for me here in Aus, but that's when most of the Northern/Eastern/Central Europe and USA based people were available.

I'm honestly astounded that we hadn't thought to do this prior to lockdowns. I know some of them play GTA5 together, and I've played Minecraft with them before.

It makes the most sense for us spread around the world, but we usually organise in-person meets and then fly around the world to catch up. Which is still incredible to me. Some of my best friends, and the best experiences I've had, have been with people I've met on the internet.

I landed in Dallas for the first time in March last year, and immediately had a bunch of friends to hang out with. Ditto Finland, Germany, Croatia, Canada, etc.

When I stopped to think about it, we had people from Britain, Canada (Vancouver and Montreal), USA (Utah, Missouri, Texas, Boston), Croatia, Germany, Brazil, Australia and Finland in the chat, as well as messages from a few people in places like Norway, Belgium and the Czech Republic who were unable to join us, but wanted to say hello anyway.

Looking at the camera feeds, three people were in homes I've either visited or stayed at overnight, and I've met over 70% of the participants in person at least once.
A lot of us had plans to meet up and travel together this July/August, which has had to be pushed back to next year for now, but we're planning to make these virtual meets a regular thing, adjusting times so that everyone gets a time slot that isn't totally inconvenient for them. It was great to sit around, chat with everyone and have quiet drink with my friends.

All of this was only made possible by one guy: Alex Mills, who started the forum, and created the community that we met through, who sadly lost his battle with Leukemia in February last year - Jeremy Clarkson even tweeted his condolences, but as long as we meet, Alex's memory won't be too far away.