My friend Richard

Three years ago I had to change my ringtone. .

I've got this friend, Richard. He's about my age and we share a similar sense of humour. I've known him for about 15 years, he used to hang about with a guy called Stewart and they were an entertaining couple.

I still see Stewart occasionally if he's in the area and these meetings are always enjoyable but it is Rich who always seemed to be more on my wavelength.

About 8 years ago he started writing on a daily basis, keeping me updated with his thoughts and feelings for the day and when we’d meet up he’d usually do a hilarious monologue about the frustrations he faces with his life, often these are things I have found similarly frustrating and the humorous way he deals with them usually makes me feel better about my foibles, irritations and failings.

A couple of years ago

We started meeting up on a more or less weekly basis with his friend Andrew. I don’t know Andrew very well, although I have sneaked a read of his personal diaries but he sometimes says “Hello when he is at work”, at these meetings the two of them sit there chatting away about anything that goes through their head, it difficult to join in and they tend to ignore anything anyone else says unless bribed with small offerings of sweets, biscuits or freebie coffees.

Recently Richard’s career has gone from strength to strength and his personal life has settled down and It was good to hear that he was soon to be back with one of his previous employers its only a one off project, but he should do well there.

However

I’m always a little embarrassed about my input to the friendship, he provides a constant source of amusement in my life but I add little to his. I think I ought to leave the guy alone for a bit, I’m sure he doesn’t need me hanging around, and anyway I’m joining this new thing TYSIC with my new friend Mark (who likes football a bit too much for my taste, but maybe I can cure him of that) and Michael has just retold one of my jokes, I think maybe he fancies me.

The above is, of course, me being silly.

I do fully understand the difference between a real friend and a comedian I happen to have followed (not in the stalker sense) for a long time and who finally acknowledged my existence but it does make me wonder what sort of a risk people who blog so openly really run. I know RH often blogs “in character” but I suspect a certain amount of real Herring gets through I hope that never causes him problems.

The ring tone thing?

Apart from Comedy, my other main nerditry is around Doctor Who, I love it. Its a TV series, I know, and now days my main reason for enjoying it is how excited it gets my kids (actually, that’s a lie, but one I can live with) but it doesn’t alter the fact that I used to have a “TARDIS materialising” sound for my ringtone until the night I got a 2am callout from work and so awoke to that sound not thinking “oh bugger the systems have gone down again” but more worryingly “At last, the Doctor’s here, where will he take me to?”

Mr Herring, I suspect you should spend your HIGNFY fee on increased security.

Update

I subsequently got a reply from Mr H himself:

Most of my fans are too lazy and fat to be effective stalkers. There are a few pricks out there but most people understand the boundaries and are a pleasure to know.

Try and stay in the latter group!