Friends

I'll be there for you, Cos you're there for me too

Today was a 'Friends' day.

I woke early and as the screeching seagulls ensure ongoing sleep is not an option, I opened up blip and was amazed at the photos being uploaded of heavy snow in Christchurch. (Blipcental's fix this a.m. means I'll now have to click on the 'upload' button to get the antipodean blips in the 'wee small hours'). This encouraged me to phone M, in Timaru, which I'd been meaning to do for over a week. It was nearly 5 p.m. there and M was about to go and feed the animals before it got dark. No snow in Timaru she was happy to report. Having gone from NE Scotland to NZ, partly to get away from snow she was glad of that. It was good to catch up. Maybe some blips of Victoria, Australia will encourage me to phone J in Mornington.

A planned lunch with another J at 'Cafe Grande'. We've known each other for 46 years. Then we walked down to 'Eteaket' for tea and cakes with B, who'd texted this morning to say she was on the train north from London, home from LA for a brief trip. J and B have known each other even longer but haven't seen one another since - well since they couldn't remember, maybe not since J was in Brussels.

But it was just like we'd all seen one another yesterday, or the day before yesterday. We talked and talked and talked (in between mouthfuls of carrot and chocolate beetroot cake). I'd like to have blipped us but we were too busy talking - trams, Murdoch, politics, Scottish politics, royal weddings and Friday's unroyal wedding, the downturn in Las Vegas, how to survive as retired 'ladies who lunch', how to survive as a dame who still works (very hard), husband, rugby, the Festival. Do men meet after years apart take up where they'd left off just like nothing had gone on in between?

It was such fun - a great way to spend a Monday afternoon, and not a glass of rose in sight.

Being blipless and with an about to expire camera battery I took a few shots of the Fringe posters which have gone up on Melville Drive. They do brighten up the area.

J and I spent a lot of time talking about how easy it was to fritter time away not doing very much of anything when you don't have the discipline of work. Blip does that to me but to-night I MUST do some of the things on the list - the refurb list for tomorrow, banking, redd out the box room to find my Leisure pass. There is also the tax return (why do HMRC want a return from me this year?), renewing the house insurance and that application I have to fill in. Or of course I could just watch the rest of the final day of Le Tour (yes, I know who won but 'Top Gear' took precedence last night) and blip.