I talk a lot. Do you? Are you a witterer? I totally am, and Leigh-on-Sea.com are enablers for my chats because what is a blog if not a great big monologue out into the ether? (thanks guys!) I always remember my Dad coming to pick me up from university for the holidays and him saying that from the minute he got me in Surrey, I didn't stop talking until we got back to Leigh, and pulled into the drive. I love it. I'm a total witterer and I can't help it.

I could talk all day. I probably bore my colleagues telling them all kinds of stories and anecdotes, I hope I'm self aware enough to reign it in a *little* bit. I talk with my partner constantly, I don't shut up and neither does she, sometimes we don't get to sleep until gone midnight because we're gassing away. We were best friends before we got together, and given that I've known her for over 13 years, it's amazing we still have stuff to talk about. But we really do.

My Grandma was a big talker. She LOVED to chat. She would talk to people in shops that made me cringe as a kid but I see myself doing it now. She would know every staff member in her local Morrison's and do the rounds while doing her weekly shop, chatting to them all, hearing about their weddings and babies and lives. And she'd talk too. I remember going with my cousin to get her ears pierced and my Grandma telling the jeweller that I was visiting from Leigh-on-Sea, that she used to live in Southend but moved to Northampton with her husband's job. WAY too much information during a short appointment for a 12 year old to get gold studs, and the shopkeeper probably didn't care, but listened sweetly anyway while I, a teenager, went red in the face from embarrassment. But now I'm grown up, I can appreciate that she just loved talking to people.

Some of the most important people in my life are big talkers too (I'm amazed we get anything done) - like my Mum's best friend, who I can witter with for hours, or my sister in law, who I have no trouble in chatting to with a coffee or glass of wine for whole evenings. My sister and I have a tradition every year of meeting up to watch a childhood favourite video (now on DVD, natch) just before Christmas but as we've got older, we talk all the way through it now! I used to ring my Grandad pretty much every day and we would chat for a good 30 minutes as I walked home from work. He died last year - almost a year ago - and I really, really miss chatting to him, even though it was only silly stuff, about Corrie, or food! It was a big part of our relationship as he lived 100 miles away, and I didn't get to see him very much, so it kept us close. I'm so glad I had that with him - kept together through talking! My colleagues and I also talk a lot about everything in our lives: what we're having for tea, what we did at the weekend, all about our families. It's amazing how much I know about their lives without even knowing their families personally, but it shows how much we talk. It's important to chat, I think, but of course you have to pick your moments.

I always think of Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm bumping into someone, and quickly saying bye without stopping. He criticised the guy for "wanting to do the 'stop and chat'." I roared when I first saw this scene. Sometimes you don't want to do the 'stop and chat', and that's fine. When I see someone I know in the street and I'm on the way to something, a quick wave can suffice, and equally if I see them rushing past I think "haha, they don't want to do the stop and chat".

But by and large guys, I bloody love a chat. I'm not at my Grandma's level of knowing all the supermarket staff's personal lives just yet, but give me time.

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Ray Morgan