LUNCH WITH A DEAR FRIEND I HAVEN'T SEEN FOR 18 YEARS!

LUNCH WITH A DEAR FRIEND I HAVEN'T SEEN FOR 18 YEARS!

Many years ago and life times ago when I was in my early 20's I was studying Beauty Therapy and working part-time at a waxing salon in Prahran called Meticulous. There I met a fabulous woman by the name of Bernadette. Over the years we became good friends and when I opened my own business a couple of years later she followed me as a client. The friendship grew stronger and we became great mates over the next few years, with much partying and hanging around with each other and friends, going away with friends, going to balls, parties, rollerblading and discussing things in life.

I used to rent fabulous houses in one of my favourite places in the world Aireys Inlet in Victoria on the Great Ocean Rd. I had been going there from about 19 yrs of age before it was discovered. It has a beautiful long beach, wasn't very populated, rugged and rejuvenating.

We also used to go to balls and a group of about 10 of us would go "disco rollerblading" on a Sunday evening in South Yarra. It was so much fun as some of us could skate, and some like me couldn't.

A wonderful NYE party with friends. Myself and Bernadette. I can't remember when (I'm hopeless with dates and didn't record them very well in my albums). It must have been about 1993?

Our lives all started to change in my early 30's (19-20 years ago) as people were moving away or getting into serious relationships or married and the groups were drifting apart. I started dating my future husband (now ex  - thank goodness) and Bernadette was running her own business and working very hard and we lost contact with each other. Much has happened in my life since but every now and then I'd look on Google or in the white pages for her, and certainly never forgot about her. A couple of years ago I started to really look for her and only when I joined Linkedin did I find her. I plucked up the courage to call where she was working, found her and left a message with her secretary. I never heard back from her and thought that perhaps I had the wrong person, or she didn't want to renew the friendship and I was ok with that.

Then a few weeks ago I received an email from her and we set up a date for 2 weeks ago. Bernadette then realised that she needed to change it and  sent me an email which  I had missed. I got a call from her 2 weeks ago on the day we'd originally set saying she was sitting at the restaurant waiting for me. We came to the conclusion that I'd missed the email and set another date for 2 weeks later which was Monday this week. Monday came around, I went to Camberwell and that's where we discovered after I sent a SMS saying I was running late that I HAD THE WRONG DAY and it was for Tuesday! LOL.

So 3rd time lucky we finally met up yesterday and it was as if we'd seen each other the day before. IT HAD BEEN 18 YEARS! 4.5 Hours later we were still chatting and both needed to head off. What a great lunch, catch up and fabulous person! I'm so glad I didn't give up on trying to find her. It has absolutely made my week, month and year. Thanks :)

Bernadette looks and is the same, just as beautiful inside and out. I've changed substantially on the outside and am a better person on the inside(I think) and much wiser than I was then.