I can still remember the moment that I told my close friend Monica that I was moving to the UK. It was a Saturday night, she and her husband Brendon were getting ready to embark on their honeymoon the next day, and I was making them dinner.
The last few blogs have been a bit sentimental, so this one comes to you from the same vein. At a time when I am thinking about my future and when they are celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary it seems apt.
I was living with them after leaving a long term relationship. Amazing friends huh. They had been married all of about 6 months when I turned up on their door step with a suitcase and a coffee table. I was thinking about what I was going to do with the money that was coming my way from the sale of my portion of the house and a trip was the first thing on my mind. I had always wanted to go to Europe, I had been talking about it for years. I had been poised to begin the trip 5 years earlier but had met this man instead.
So back to the dinner, it had been a busy week and here I was wittering on about this trip that was going to change my life and Monica looked at me and said Hang on what are you talking about? I thought you were going for a trip, are you going to live? I had forgotten in my excitement that I had forgotten to tell her. She was so great, she gave me a great big hug and said that even though she was gutted that I was going, that it was something that I had been talking about for years and it was a great idea.
So we sat down around her kitchen table and discussed what the future was bringing for us all. And this kitchen table has seen a number of great discussions like this. I was sitting at it when Monica produced her hand with a gorgeous engagement ring, and I was one of the many that helped to renovate that room when they bought the house together.
The three of us had a ball living together. We would hang out after work, fire going, drinking a couple of glasses of wine or bourbon, have a cuppa later on and talk for ages. When I was at home that is. I was often referred to as the live in student – as I was hardly ever there, leaving at about 6am to head to the gym, then out at night. I loved that time of my life, although it was all over the place, I had them to anchor me and to have a great time with.
Coming home this time, Monica and Brendon had moved from the house where we had all of these memorable moments. They have a beautiful new home, filled with their lovely young family. On a typical pre Christmas drink, this time with loads of babies, we could have wound back the clock 4 years, we were back to laughing our heads off and drinking too much. They were kind enough to share their holidays with me again, to welcome some of my friends and to introduce me to some new ones of theirs.
I will always miss living less than 5 minutes from them. In all of my life that has been the distance between us. Until I moved here and missed out on some pretty big milestones in their lives. I can never quite believe that I was not there for the babies being born, but I have met them now and it’s lovely to hear them call me Aunty Nic. I am one of the ladies in the red dresses at Mummy and Daddy’s wedding. But they have missed some of the big moments in my life over here too. It was fitting that when I did date someone, that Monica was the first one to speak to him on the phone, even before my family.
The best thing though, is that no matter the 12,000 miles between us, we are no more than a phone call or email away. And when we do see each other in the flesh, it is like we have never been apart. Monica will always be cheering me on to see more and do more, and I will always be sending her and her family postcards from my adventures. So after much deliberation and homesickness, I have decided that I will be in the UK for the time being. I will them her and our close knit group of friends more than I can ever put into words, but they are never far from my thoughts or rather sickeningly my heart.
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