Tattoos, soliciting and six degrees of social media separation

My first love messaged me on Facebook last night to ask if I wanna!  Yes of course I wanna…  He was the only boy at my sixth birthday party – me, Adam, 30 little girls and an ice cream cake that melted under the glow of its sparklers.  He’s still very cute with a look of Bowie about him, and I chat to him occasionally in the KW4 pub.  So when he asks for my help, I’m only too happy to deliver.  Can’t say yet what the project involves but it will definitely be fun, and I’ll share the outcome with you in due course… (Maybe.)

First boyfriend

Adam has a swirl of thorny roses tattooed along his right arm that reminds me a bit of the Culture Club clothes we wore in the 80s.  When I met Boy George in Carnaby Street he was dressed in a mixture of roses and Hebrew lettering with coloured ribbons woven into his hair.  I swiftly plaited mine and rushed out to buy a hard brimmed black hat.

I worked there for a while… you may recall the story about me being arrested for soliciting? (It’s in the book!)  I loved the buzz and the fantastic, weird people.  Serving Boy George and John Moss was a normal thing in those new romantic days of kamikaze bandanas and fluorescent silk ties.  Didn’t know who they were yet, but their distinctive look set them apart from all the other beautiful creatures gracing the once orange patchwork of now dirty street.  If only we’d had social media back then.  Although I’d surely have been fired for incessant tweeting, and my Facebook page would have exploded from sheer over activity.

This is how small the world is.  I first saw Carnaby Street when I bunked off school with Angela, aged about 12, to visit someone she knew called Hilary who worked in the West End.  Last year I wrote a press release for a fabulous celebrity agency in Soho and, while sharing a bottle of wine under the stars, I briefly met the agency owners’ daughter.  Then, in Ireland for Halloween, Angie showed me photos of her at a party with Hilary, Cheryl Cole and… my client’s daughter!! It turns out that Hilary manages Girls Aloud and Lily is Cheryl Cole’s PA.  Angie knows her!  I’m connected to my childhood next door neighbour via one of my clients and an overrated ex-X Factor judge. Who’d have guessed?

It’s very true that we’re connected to everybody by six degrees of separation.  And with social networking, it’s not too hard to track those connections.  I use them for business advantage, of course – and that’s one of the things I teach people who want to market their businesses more successfully on-line. If you’d like to chat about maximising your use of social media, you’re welcome to call me.  Or, like Adam, you can find me on Facebook – or here, as always @WeekendWitch.