Blogger Notes

Someone once said, if you can count your true friends on one hand then your a very rich person indeed. We're not talking the random, odd person you bump into in the supermarket and have a quick chat with or the receptionist at the gym or the dustman, postman, milkman or window cleaner. I mean the real in depth, know everything about you, good, bad or indifferent, puts up with you through all your moans and groans deep down friend.

The funny thing about having such close friends is that each one is there for you in a different capacity. I think I am extremely rich with the friends that I have. I may not have a gazillion falling out of the wardrobe but the ones I do have are the bestest friends in the whole world.

There is a friend for all different occasions and different situations you find yourself in. Some of these situations may not be quite 'kosher' but there is always the right person that fits the role!

Let's just examine these friends in a little bit more detail:

My friend Susan - I can't even remember how old we were when we first starting playing together, hanging out on the streets during those long, hot, (once upon a time we had summer's in England!), lazy days of school holidays. We would all ride round the streets on our bikes, (I totally loved my Chopper - it was the coolest bike ever!) Susan was the first friend I ever went on holiday with. It was the first time she had ever been abroad and she came with me and my parents to the holiday from hell, (well it was for her!).

We stayed at the most beautiful hotel in Cannes, spending our days under a cabana on a private beach, dodging leering old men and fighting constantly. Actually Susan wasn't the one doing the fighting, I admit, after all these years it was me! I was absolutely vile to her. Being an only child, I wasn't used to sharing my holidays or my family with anyone and boy did she suffer for that. It got to the stage where we had pedalled out, way out to the middle of the ocean on a boat and had a massive fight. Never being the strongest swimmer, doggy paddle was more my style, I jumped overboard, leaving her to bring the boat back to shore, whilst I gasped for breath and narrowly escaped drowning just to prove a point -what that point is I really don't know and don't think I ever did!

Umpteen years later and we are totally friends for life. We went through years were we lost touch as our lives took on different directions but in my major times of need she was there and although we can and do talk about everything and anything, she is the greatest friend to talk shopping!!!




Handbags, shoes, tops, dresses, bras, jewellery, you name it and we can discuss it, analyse it, shop for it and find it! Not necessarily together but virtual shopping can be just as fun! Above all, Susan is a total inspiration. She has achieved the most fantastic thing in her life, her determination and willpower would put the majority of us to shame. She is the most beautiful person inside and out and I really couldn't imagine my life without her in it.


Then there is Suzanne. Well, I call her Zanne. We met at school when we were 7. The history that we share could fill a massive bonkbuster, oops, I meant blockbuster! Maybe stories for another time, as I don't think this site is x rated! Zanne was the second friend I went away with, this time without family. We went to the peaceful and calm town of San Antonio, Ibiza. This is the place where you go to chill and lay in the sun, have an early night and recharge - not!!! Ibiza in the mid 1980's was not as it is today but it was still the clubbing capitol of Europe. It was the first time I had major sunburn, the worst hangover ever and met more than one boy on one night! It was the first place where I was taught that an English breakfast is the best cure for the worst hangover ever - it really does work!



It was the first time for Zanne that she got locked out of our room on purpose and had to find somewhere else to sleep, the first time that she shared a bed with more than one person, (not her fault), and the first time she was ever accused of blocking out the sun, talk about a total eclipse!


She shared the special times, when I had my babies and then 14 years later, I shared in her miraculous time with her first baby. We can talk about absolutely anything, especially any body issue and any body function! There aren't many people in the world that you can discuss these things with without any embarrassment!!!

Zanne has shown so much grit and determination through many, many tough times in her life and even through her own problems is always on the other end of the phone, text, e-mail whenever you need her. Words will never really do justice to our history and depth of relationship - she will always and forever be a huge part of my life.





Mandy is the sensible one. It's very important to have a sensible friend, one who will talk to you and make you see sense with no frills attached. She will never tell you something when it isn't true and isn't scared to tell you when you are wrong.

She is also very stylish, always looks beautiful. Her hair is always perfect, it never frizzes, kinks or sticks out in strange places, (not even going to go down the road of what mine does!). Whatever she wears never looks thrown together, (don't look in this direction!). She is the type of person who will turn heads in the street without realising, just in the way she carries herself,


with such confidence and poise. She it totally stunning!!! She has also seen me through a major crisis, (yes, my life does seem like one crisis after another!).





Claire is an everything friend. For many years we would speak every day at least five times a day, for at least five hours a day! We never said hello, the phone would ring and the conversation would carry on. As we were doing our housework, which happened much too often, we would discuss politics, medical issues, pets, children, shopping, cars (yes, women talk about them too!), computers, terrorists, you name it, we covered it, and yes, by the end of it, the world would be a much better place if we were left to run it!

Lunch was a weekly occasion where we still had tons and tons to discuss. One thing we never, ever did was run out of topics of conversation. We used to play amazing games of pictionary, where we were so in tune with each other, that even my worst stick man drawing could be interpreted as Abraham Lincoln. You can see the resemblance? No? Well, she could!

She would calm me down when I went into panic attacks about the dreaded dentist appointment and knew exactly how to handle me in any situation.

About a year ago, Claire got a job and started working full time and all of a sudden our daily marathons came to an end. A huge void came into my life. I missed our endless chats desperately. I felt as if I had lost something so huge, there was an emptiness each day that she wasn't at the end of the phone when I just needed to tell her something really quickly without having to go into a huge history. I felt as if I was mourning something and this was the first thing I really couldn't talk to her about. It wasn't her fault, she was doing something new and exciting in her life but it hurt and it was painful and I missed her terribly.

Of course we are still the best of friends and always will be and we can still pick up the phone and start where we ended last time and nothing will ever change that. It just took time to realise.

The list goes on and I feel blessed. I have my oldest friends from school like Candy and Susie and Debra that although we don't see or speak to each other that often, I know they will always be there.

Friends are the family that you get to choose and my friends are the most wonderful people in the world.