Let’s talk about our friends

Another tale from our Tuesday friends...

Do you have a large circle of friends or a small one?
Well, now... I've got a lot of friends. I'd say a huge circle of people I could talk to about most anything, and that would help me with whatever I needed help with if I asked, and whom I'd help if they asked. People I've known for ages or just a short while but that I hope I'll never lose touch with. But I don't hang out with them as much as I'd like. So does that make them acquaintances? I don't think so... So yes, I've got a large circle of friends. And of the some hundred contacts in my gmail list, I know most of them IRL too ;)

Your childhood friend C. What was she like?

First day of school, C right there with me

My bestest friend of all, from around 5 - 12 or thereabouts, C. She was lots of fun, always loyal, always ready for my insane propositions*... We were both tomboys (or boys, rather, really...) and we were together always. She lived three houses down the road, and in between was another friend (an actual boy..) whom we also spent a lot of time with. C and I would go in and out of eachother's houses as if we lived there, we'd climb the nearby mountains, cycle down to the harbour to watch the coastal steamer coming in, search through the bunkers left by the Germans, harass her little sisters... Generally having an excellent time! She's been living abroad for the past ten years or so, but she just returned, so I'll look her up one of these days.

What do you like to do with your friends?
As little as possible... Not meaning that I want to do as little as possible with them, or prefer the company of others -- but I want us to be together and not do very much... Talk, laugh, perhaps see a film and have a bite to eat. There's enough heavy scheduling with school & work... But that's what I've been doing with my friends my whole life, anyway - just hang out. Never much of a party-goer...

What is your favourite memory of a friend?
I'm sure there are plenty, but the first that came to mind was this: I was staying in Crete the summer of -94. The au pair family & I didn't quite work things out, so I'd left them after a month, and moved on to greener pastures. I'd brought my harddisk (this was pre-laptop and general internet access...) and rented a screen, so I did some work for a Norwegian company - but then they decided not to pay me anymore, so I decided not to work for them anymore. Which left me ample time to enjoy Crete, but generally skint...

.. And this is where the friendly memory comes in. (See? I hadn't forgotten...) My best friend M, my maid-of-honour-to-be (not that we knew about that at the time...), called me. For the first time that summer. (This was back in the Cretaceous period, mobiles hadn't been invented and calling abroad cost a fortune. Besides, I was out on the Harley quite a lot of the time...) She asked about how I was, and what I was doing, and then asked for my bank account number because she felt pretty certain I was broke... She didn't ask - but deposited 3000 kroner (at that time: $ 437 / £ 283) the next day, "to be repaid at some later stage"...


In doing so, she gave me one more month of sun, fun, Greek, sun, swimming, souvlaki, sun, Harley rides, sun, crystal water... You get the picture. An invaluable present :)



*or what seemed insane to us at, say, the age of 7. Which means, very innocent stuff like pressing doorbells and running away...