Miss Louise...

Today, Miss Louise and I met up for a coffee and a yarn.

It's been 2 years since I saw her last (December 2009)- and as always, the pleasure was all mine.

We've been friends since we were fourteen, and in between her living in France for a couple of years, Switzerland for another couple of years, and now Canberra for the last three months, our catch-ups have been few and far between.

Be that as it may, every time we see each other, it's almost like we're fourteen again. Our conversation starts on a mature note: we touch on work, relationships, the banality of Canberra and other adult topics. But as the day progresses, we regress.

"I like driving over the Bridge, it makes me feel tactical!" she provides, as we search for parking at Chatswood Chase.

"Does it?" I'm incredulous. I can think of nothing worse than the stress of speed and weird merging lanes

"Yeah!"- she parks, expertly

"Omg I'm so hungry"- I decide

"Yeah, omg I want a satay stick for lunch" she announces

"You can't just have one satay stick for lunch, that's not enoughhh!" I say

"But it's yummy! I don't wanna have a proper lunch, I wanna have a satay stick!" she states

and that settles it.

Later, when we're bumbling onto the lift to ride down from the Level 3 car park to the shops, we're still a bit out of sorts:

"We have to go down one", Miss Louise instructs. She pushes the button for Level 2.

"Do we?" I ask not really concentrating- shops like Chatswood Chase confuse the hiney out of me and I'm glad Miss Louise knows where we're going.

(we ride down one floor, but you can hardly feel it because it's just one storey)

"We have to get off now" she prods me.

"Do we??" I ask again- staring back at her blankly

"Yeah, this is level 2!" -- we hurry to get off and bump into each other and the wall.

A lady who's been watching our uncoordinated efforts chuckles drily and deadpans:

"You girls have got it all together"

We shop, discover that we have completely opposite taste in fashion and homewares (she's perplexed by every single item I pick up to show her with my tick of approval: "isn't this sooo cool?" wrinkling her nose in confusion at all of them), and we have a lovely day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW, MISS LOUISE! XXXX