Visited Fliss (15th April 2007)
First meeting with Fliss this year was from 2007-04-13 to 2007-04-15. It was brilliant!
We spent most of our time on the sofa in her mum’s living room playing hangman (at which she pwned me) and watching the brilliant Green Wing. We cooked lots of meals together, too.
Right at the start I told her I had a plan for this visit:
Ben: I’ll try my best to complain about stuff less and...maybe you’ll try to, sort of— Fliss: You know, I’ve been thinking about that. A lot. About being less judgemental and stuff...yeah.
I was worried this would come out all wrong but it actually cleared the air. It didn’t hang over the visit like some contractual obligation either...we got along better than we have for a long time. Reminded me of all the things that make me enjoy being around her.
I chatted with her mum about website accessibility. Turns out she has experience with assistive technologies and human factors in computing. And she’s passionate about freedom on the web.
Her mum’s dog, Scrappy, is now comfortable with me being there. Fliss’s bedsit is now co-inhabited by lowlifes and is desperately overcrowded, so being able to stay at her mum’s is a big relief for both of us. Fliss is hoping to move out to a house share, taking the part her brother is currently in.
I think this was the first time during which she didn’t rant and I didn’t lecture. Being easy-going is something I have to remind myself about each time I surface from the difficult and often frustrating technologies I work in. It’s totally worth the effort.