Some of you may recall that Belinda and I (Belinda Mellor and Teresa Bassett) run this blog together despite being on opposite sides of the globe, Belinda in New Zealand and I in Cornwall, UK.
Well, recently we had an exciting event: we met at last – in real life!
Belinda had been planning to come to the UK for a while, hoping to catch up with various friends and relatives she left behind when she moved to New Zealand in 2006. She told me there might be a possibility of our meeting up, something I very much wanted to do, because, despite knowing one another for over ten years, and working closely together on all sorts of writing projects, we’d never actually seen one another in person.
And that’s exactly what happened! Last weekend, we met up at my house in mid-Cornwall and were able to chat face-to-face. I also met her husband, and they met mine, not forgetting being introduced to my little mini-muse Lucy the cockatiel.
Below we compare notes about our meeting, and what it’s like to finally meet someone you’ve ‘known’ for so long.
Teresa: How did you feel about the prospect of meeting me for the first time?
Belinda: It was really exciting. As you say, we’ve ‘known’ each other for so long, and yet never actually met. The most daunting aspect was getting that ridiculously over-sized camper van down the lovely – but very narrow – Cornish lanes.
Teresa: You certainly did well to get to us in that! But yes, I was really excited, too. After such a long time of being online friends, I had a clear idea of you in my mind, and already felt I knew you. It was lovely to find that you were just as I’d imagined, which confirms my belief that it is possible to be friends with someone without meeting them face-to-face.
Belinda: Yes, you were exactly as I’d expected you to be, and it really didn’t feel at all strange to be together. It was truly like meeting an old friend. Plus, Mark’s vegetable lasagne was scrumptious. I’m only sorry we didn’t have longer together.
Teresa: Me too, and I shall have to post Mark’s recipe in the future! How did the rest of your trip go?
Belinda: It was great. We went from you to North Devon, then back towards Luton to drop off the van and had a few days with my oldest friend – we met at school when we were both four. Then home via Perth in Australia, where we caught up with an old school friend of Peter’s. So it really shows how precious friendships are, wherever, however and whenever they are forged.
Teresa: Yes, indeed. Did you find that the UK had changed much in the 17 years since you’ve been back?
Belinda: In some ways, yes: more traffic on the major motorways, but moving slower because there are just so many cars! Other than that, not so many changes, rather that I’d forgotten quite what it was like. I think New Zealand is a little bit more laid back and easy going in general. Of course, there are a lot less of us, spread over a similar-sized country.
Teresa: After you left our place, you went on to visit the Eden Project, an educational charity where I worked for 11 years from 1999 to 2011. What did you think of it?
Belinda: Oh, we loved that. We were lucky with the weather: it was perfect. The Eden Project was fascinating, so very well presented. It’s been on our ‘bucket list’ for years, so it was exciting to be able to go there. I sent photos home to our daughter, so now it’s on her bucket list, too! Speaking of bucket lists, we also got to Bletchley Park, where the German codes were cracked by Alan Turing and his group, and, best of all, we spent five days on a narrowboat, which I have wanted to do for so long.
Teresa: I understand you also went to see some of your favourite bands while you were here.
Belinda: We did. We went to see Fairport Convention, who have an annual, well, ‘convention’ at Cropredy that lasts three days. They are still amazing after all the years they’ve been going. Among their guests this year were the Cornish band Fisherman’s Friends, who we’ve wanted to see play since watching the film. In fact, I bought the festival tickets before we had booked flights – we had to come then.
Teresa: We’re fans of Fisherman’s Friends too, and I wasn’t surprised to find that Belinda and I had even more in common than we’d realised. We even discovered what some may call a guilty secret – that we both possess the same David Soul album in our vinyl collection!
Belinda: Yes, that was funny! And a lot of books, too, as I noticed when I got to peruse your very interesting bookshelves. You have a lovely study. It was fun to see where all your stories come to life and your impressive art work, and your mum’s too. Of course, the other thing we had in common when we first met online was that we both had retired greyhounds as pets.
Teresa: Sadly, we lost our Jinty in 2018, and I miss her a great deal. I’m happy for the years we had together, and pleased to hear that your two are still going strong. Also, I was really interested to hear about the motel you run near Nelson in NZ.
Belinda: Ah, well, that is a story in itself! Since the start of the Covid outbreak we have been housing long-term guests who had previously been chronically homeless. It has been an interesting few years. It’s very rewarding, but it was great to get a break for a few weeks. This is the first proper holiday we’ve had since we began. Luckily our housekeeper is very efficient and she moved in while we were away. Our two greyhounds were looked after by a good friend in the greyhound community.
Belinda and I also hatched some exciting new writing plans while we were together, and chatted about the new horse anthology Belinda is planning.
Belinda: Yes, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time – a crossover anthology between classic pony stories and fantasy stories, aimed at younger readers. I think it would be fun, and I’d like it to be in aid of a good, horse-related, cause. There will be unicorns and flying horses, of course, but we’ll be looking for far more than that.
Teresa: I hope you let me contribute a story or two to it. And I loved your suggestion that we work on an anthology of tree stories some time in the future. (Belinda and I love trees – in fact, apart from our writing, it was our love of the natural world which drew us together.)
Belinda: I’m hoping you come up with a proper ‘Cornish’ story, drawing on Cornish folk lore, as one thing I love about your writing is how most of your stories have a real ‘spirit of place’.
Teresa: Thank you, and I shall certainly put my mind to it!
Belinda: As for the tree stories, that would be a lot of fun, too. I have a real passion for helping authors get themselves out in front of an audience, and anthologies are a great way for that to happen. Themed anthologies are easier to market, and they lend themselves to supporting good causes, too, because you can always find ways to tie the themes in to real world issues or areas of need.
I really enjoyed meeting Belinda in real life, and I certainly hope there will be further opportunities for us to meet up in the future. It was a long way to come (over 18,000 miles in fact!), but thank you so much for fitting us in, Belinda!
Belinda: No, thank you – both of you – for having us. Your home is beautiful. And Cornwall is just as I remember it from childhood holidays. When we arrived and couldn’t find you – there was almost no internet coverage so I couldn’t even call you – we ended up with half the neighbourhood stopping and trying to help us. And thank you for sharing Mark’s lasagne recipe.
Belinda is currently in the final stages of releasing the third novel in her Silvana series Silvana – Restoration, while I’m putting together an anthology of young adult suspense stories. More from us soon, and thank you for reading.
Find us here:
Tree and Leaf 