Virtual reality

'How do you deal with your ex-husband and his girlfriend living in your house?' 

'So I asked my therapist if I could skype her.'

'I found writing a form of therapy during my cancer.'

'I'm faking it till I make it'.

'Dancing with my teenage daughter was beautiful.'

'Vaginal dryness and hot flushes. The menopause is the next big thing.'

'He asked me out for coffee!!!!'

You might hear statements like these bandied about between old friends who've shared a lifetime of experience together. They're not the kind of things you discuss at first pass of meeting someone. So when you do find yourself looking into a stranger's face but discussing deeply personal things, it's odd. Counter-intuitive.

Yet at Cybermummy, that is exactly what you do. Because the people you're talking to might look unfamiliar, but you know their deepest secrets....and they know yours. What's more, you feel as though you know more about them than you do your real life friends.

And then you bump into a face you've only ever seen on a computer screen. Suddenly they become three-dimensional. You can't help but whoop and hug and shout: "Hellooooo!" It's a virtual reality game that suddenly becomes completely real. And there is genuine joy in the experience.

At the end of Cybermummy we were asked to tweet our favourite bit. I couldn't define one single moment. What made the experience special for me wasn't the talks or the goodie bags or the prizes or the speakers. It was simply being given the chance to bring online characters to life. I wonder now, having met those characters whether it'll colour the way I read their words. Like when you read a book and then see the film and then re-read the book. Does the book seem different?

It might. It'll probably be better. But bottomline, they'll still be a must read.

Thanks to all the lovely ladies I met at Cybermummy yesterday and thanks to the organisers for a great day.