I have been very lucky in that I have made some very good friends, mainly through IRC and the channel #Gaychat-UK.

The pictures to the left are just a few of these friends.

From top, left to right:

Drew, Gem, Joe, Tony, Paul, Mart, Jayse, Mark and Nick.

Where these friends have webpages, you can click on their image to follow the link

Drew and Gem are partners and have been for some 6 years or so now. I visit them as often as possible and their door is always open if I need a break. Gem has offered to help with our garden - a mammoth task! I hope he realises what he is letting himself in for!

Joe is a fairly new friend but is a lovely guy - very caring. As he lives in Kent, I don't see enough of him unfortunately but once the business is up and running I hope to remedy that.

Tony is someone I started chatting to when he was living in Norway. He has since moved back home to mum in Wigan and is generally sorting his life out - which means he visits more now! A fab friend as well as a bit of hunk - but I forgive him that <g>

Paul, I chat to a lot on IRC but haven't seen for quite a while - money constraints mean we haven't been able cross paths. He is very funny and has a very down to earth way of looking at things at times. You are guaranteed to be giggling within a few mins of talking to him.

Mart is a young man who adopted me as his 'IRC mum' a couple of years ago. He has recently branched out into web design as well as doing computer consultancy so is certainly making his mark.

Jayse used to live in Bradford before moving to Bracknell due to work. He visits as often as he can and also usually calls in when I am down visiting Drew And Gem, so we meet up fairly regularly.

Mark is someone I started chatting to when I was first off work ill. He has ME as well and he helped me through the early stages when I wasn't quite sure how to deal with the illness. He is also in the process of setting up an internet business with his partner and a friend - so we are hoping we can help each other to get established.

Nick lives in Southampton and so we only usually meet when I am visiting Drew and Gem. He shares a birthday with me so we jokingly count ourselves as 'twins' - not identical though - he wears different colour dresses to me <g>

There are a lot more friends too numerous to mention but you can meet those either through the #Gaychat-Uk website or on the channel itself. But there are some guys I have to mention in particular.

Neil, Peter and Luke are the best friends anyone could ask for. They have helped and supported me through the last couple of years and we have shared a lot of laughs. It was through our chats that we decided to set up the IRC channel in August '96. They are very private people but I still hope to meet them one day - if only to see if Neil can talk as much in real life as he does on the phone! Neil and I came close to meeting last January, when he went to surprise me at Euston Station when I was on my way to visiting Drew and Gem. Unfortunately for once the trains were early and we missed by minutes. We speak often on the phone and on irc and they give me lots of advice on setting up the business and so on.  Thanks guys!!