Old Friends & Other Memories.

I suppose, because we have moved to another country to live, we have lost touch with a lot of old friends.

We can still return to Cities where we have lived, & take up with friends from days past, who still remain friends, in the true sense of the word. They will relate to our sense of humour, our sense of justice, & on the whole, we will retain the ties that forged the friendships in the first place. Some of them have come to stay with us, & it has been so great & comfortable to have them.

Fortunes will have risen & fallen, but the basic friendships still remain.

Of course, inevitably, there have been friends who seem to have totally gone from our lives.

But the memories still remain. Vivid & filled with joy, laughter, & a little sadness at the passing of the relationship.

We had a very fun-filled friendship with a couple who were Scottish, by birth. They were from Glasgow originally, & had decided to emigrate, & begin a new life together in a new country. They said they landed at Sydney, & detested it. So they moved on, to the South Island of New Zealand, & there they settled. The wife, J was a middle child, in a family with 3 daughters. She said she always felt she missed out. The eldest sister got all the new things, such as clothes, shoes, & the love & admiration of the parents.

J said she never had a new bra in her life, until, at 18, she bought herself a new one, that actually fit, with her own money, from her pay. She said her younger sister was treated to all new clothes etc, because J had worn them out, as hand-me-downs.

I am not sure why Mr J, as I will call him, decided he wanted to have a new, fresh life, but I gathered he didnt get along with his father. Mrs J had the brightest blue eyes I have ever seen, with light blond hair. Mr J, had wonderful velevet brown eyes, & black curly hair. They had 2 sons, close in age to our children, & the children all got along well, which always helps in friendships.

Mr & Mrs J also had a couple of pets. Shandy, who was a very hairy, Longhaired Spaniel, & Whisky, who was a long haired ginger cat. Both animals shed copiously & Shandy was given to violent flatulent outbursts, which, while silent, were quite violent, in a malodourous fashion.

And who knows, who sneaked one off, in the prescence of the unsuspecting Shandy, knowing she would be given the blame without hesitation.

We used to play Scrabble with the Scots. We had such fun with them. We went to Wine & Cheese Parties with them. We stayed with them when our first house sold, rather quickly, & our new house was not yet vacant. We slept down in their Games room. There was no door on the Games room. Their house was split level, & the stairs passed by the door to the Games Room. They could view the 'sleeping beauty' of their guests, as they came & went at early hours.

The door had been removed to use as a huge table for a very large welcoming party for the "Younger Sister" who had married a rather highly paid Airline Pilot. The Party was a huge success, & the Newly Weds were suitably impressed at tanned skin in October. New Zealand could occasionally be kind to sunbakers, very early in the Spring season. And, we all lived close to the sea, so visits to the beach could be daily.

The only slight marring of the Welcome Party, for me, was, after boasting about how attractive the Gom's (who was Happy Young Publican Husband, HYPH) legs & slim ankles were, compared to his sister's rather thick, solid, pins, he appeared wearing a SKIRT!! Along with another, male. friend, in a skirt also! Mrs J, was nervously horrified. After all, she didn't want her sister, & new brother in law to think she was friends with idiots & clowns!

But that is another story, for another post.

While the Sister & Pilot BIL were visiting, we moved out, & into our new house. And as a return favour, for having been housed, I agreed to babysit Mr & Mrs J's children. Who had now grown to the 2 natural born sons, plus an adopted daughter, called Ainsleigh.

Ainsleigh was about 2 when the visit occurred, & she was a beautiful little girl, & the delight of her parents. And, imagine my horror, when her parents, Mr & Mrs J, plus Younger Sister & Airline Pilot Husband, arrived to collect the children. Just in time to hear me saying, rather loudly, & plaintively, "Ainsleigh, if you dont want to eat it, please dont massage it into the kitchen floor!"
(It was a peanut butter sandwich.)

Which I suppose, is quite inoffensive, given some of today's favourite pleas to small children!



k.d.lang. the whole hymns of the 49th parallel.

How brilliant are Candadian Musicians, & Songwriters!