We live in a smaller world today than 50 years ago, or even 10 years ago for that matter. Smaller, because every time I meet someone I can always find a connection, someone else we know. I can meet someone at a pop up Edinburgh festival bar and find that they used to live in my home town and went out with the boy I had planned to marry if I found myself alone at 40 – as well as having gone to school with The Boy.

 I’m used to the 6 degrees of separation this city has, I grew up in a small village, I grew up with the internet, with aeroplanes; i’m not used to snail mail, and travel that takes weeks not days. I’m used to instant communication, with sky-ping my sister in Australia after she has spent 12 hours on night shift. I watch her eat toast as she watches me smoke and drink a glass of wine before bed.

I like the fact that the boy who I met only 2.5 years ago knows my friends of 13 years – that birthdays and parties and leaving do’s are often joint affairs. It re-affirms us as a couple, that our world is small around us. I like text messages and phone calls. I like being close to people through their blogs. I like small things, I would I am small myself.

But sometimes your world can suddenly grow. The sister moved to Australia, had a child and a demanding granny and now my life is spent working out time differences and planning 24 hour flights. When you can’t travel electronically your world suddenly becomes much larger than you planned.

My best friend has just taken a job 250 miles away. 250 miles – that’s just a day’s diving from some people, but in this small country of ours, 250 miles is forever. Its 8.5 hours by train, 7 hours by coach, 6 hours drive or a scary flight north on a propeller plane. Its less than that to my parents and I often feel the distance between us.

I congratulated her on her job of course, but that I would miss her. I can no longer jump on the train and be with her 30 minutes later, a hangover on the way home will be much worse if I have to deal with it for 8 hours. I will miss her like crazy, electronic communication alone between us is not enough.

…but these are small worries; in reality my world has suddenly got larger, I had forgotten how large it could get.