One of our dear members, Nicky, who was brave enough to join us in Birmingham for our meet-up last weekend, shares with us what the experience was like for her.

I bought my train ticket in advance so there was no backing out on the day and set out, last Saturday morning, with great trepidation.

The train seats were allocated and I had one with out a window so had no sense of where I was going, just that I was traveling somewhere.  Birmingham station was large and confusing. I asked directions but eventually realized I was going the wrong way, and as time was ticking by, started to worry that I wouldn’t make it to the meet-up at all!

Eventually arriving at The Dragon I had a quick look at the people sitting outside and headed for the bar. I had made it this far, and now just had to take the last step, it would be silly to back out now. The inside was quite dark so I wandered back outside and approached a  group of people, one of which I thought I recognized from the website as Wedge. Relieved, I was right.

I’m not a great conversationalist, and I don’t know anyone with similar tendencies to me, so I was quite apprehensive about what sort of people I was going to meet and what I would say to them. No need to have worried as we sat and chatted about general things.  The conversation was light and I realized that here was a group of friendly, sensible people and it was a group that I was happy to be part of.

Several of us had trains to catch so we walked up to the station together and said our goodbyes. As I sat on the train on my way home (another windowless seat) I was really glad that I had made the effort to go.

It was great to meet real, genuine, ordinary people, not just talk to a computer screen, and now I feel so much less alone in this!

I shall try and post more often on the message board, and I look forward to the meet-up next year:-)”

It’s great to read about a meet-up from a member’s point of view. Thank you to Nicky for taking the time to share her thoughts with us.