Friendships Are Made Of This...

There's nothing like a special guest to make a new pad feel like home. Apart from the opportunity to welcome someone into your new space, it also makes you get your a*** into gear with that last little bit of unpacking. You know, the pile you have left in a corner and avoid making eye contact with, the half empty box you've been walking around while muttering 'I must get around to doing that...'

Anyway, last night Gidday HQ played host to its very first guest - A-down-the-hill (the down-the-hill bit a reference to the place I lived before). The guest bed was made up, living room cushions plumped, cosy blankets draped over the couch (our friendship has a history of much 'vino, cosy blankies and a movie') and the place was all ready for her arrival.


Gorgeous house-warming flowers from A-down-the-hill.
The thistles are fitting - hubby is Scottish!

A-down-the-hill was my first 'London' friend. Fresh off 'the boat' in 2004 and with only her email address to guide me, our friendship has been a rock for me - ups and downs 'n' all - over the last eight years and outside Mum and Lil Chicky, she's the person I feel closest to on the planet.

By the time this post is published, she will have featured a dozen times on Gidday from the UK, appearing the first time on the 29th June 2009 as 'A' in Muscles & a Minor Heatwave and most recently at my latest birthday bash, Pukka Picnic & Polo Ponies.

In between, there have been BBQs, baking, and bicycles. I've been a Hot Chick to her Hen, and an Emergency Handbag. We've been Ladies Who Lunch and we've even Kew-ed the Music together. She was also the one who inspired my Kindle-envy, culminating in my abandoning my bookish faith and embracing the pure, electronic loveliness of Audrey.

And she's another Happy Little Vegemite and Australian Abroad, an enduring fellowship for those of us who've made it beyond the initial couple of years here to 'settle', whether by marriage (her) or by sheer bloody-minded declaration (me).

So, A-down-the-hill was my first guest, a fitting tribute to all sorts of new chapters we've seen each other through over these last eight, London years. And to welcome her last night to Fabulous Finchley was...

...well...

...fabulous.


ps...today we also hugged each other Merry Christmas as we said goodbye as we will not see each other again before the big day. This provided little ol' moi with a timely reminder to let you all know that there are only 8 sleeps to go.

That's right, we are down to single figures peeps. Are you ready?