Old friends

I have to admit, I am a natural loner. I can do things alone without a problem, I don't suffer too much if I don't have contact with another human being, which is another human being besides my lovely husband or someone with whom you can have a normal conversation with sentences longer than 2 words (animal sounds, vehicle imitations and machinery noises do NOT count as words).

Honestly I don't mind! Sometimes I realize that I haven't had a conversation with anyone besides my husband and maybe our landlady in several days. I love to go roller balding alone, or for walks alone, or running alone (the other day I went for a run in the forest, at night and I was wondering if I'm kind of a bit "psycho", running alone in the dark in the forest, but I love it), in fact sometimes I think people can be so distracting and irritating :o) Often with strangers I feel uncomfortable and awkward, especially if you don't *CLICK* and all you can think of is talking about the weather (which of course is a very important topic, but after a couple of minutes you, again, don't have anything to say). Hmm, as you can see, I'm not so much a people person. I know I can talk like a book and "hide" behind it, saying many silly things just to avoid the dreaded silence, but still, everything feels stiff and awkward. With friends it's a totally different picture. If I have the chance to meet friends, meaning REAL friends, I love it. And with real friends you can even be silent together without feeling stupid or strange.

I have many friends all over the world and often we don't have much contact because of the great distance (another silly thing about me is that I hate phoning), but once we are together again, we pick up were we left it off. And I do soo much appreciate those friendships and wished those wonderful people weren't spread all over the world and we wouldn't have to have those breaks in between contact.

On Friday though I had a chance to pack my two boys in the car and go and meet one of my oldest and best of friends. She's one of four girls and as a teenager I loved visiting them A LOT. It had a feeling of "Pride and Prejudice", although I didn't know and love that novel back them. But imagine a house full with a mum who has problems hearing and four talkative girls who have to speak loudly, so that the mum would understand, I guess you get the picture :o). Sometimes it felt really good to be back in my quiet home again.

Well, my friend Liane got married and moved up north, and of course I also got married and moved around all over the place, so we don't have a chance to meet to often. Well, she's down south for a visit, and I grabbed the opportunity and packed the car with my two boys and all those couple thousands of things you really need for two kids and went to visit them. And it was like in the good old times: three of the four girls were present, the mum whose hearing hasn't improved, the quiet dad (whom you often forget because he is so quiet) and additional one husband and several kids. If I thought that it was loud back then, it was nothing compared with how it is nowadays:o)))) But nonetheless it was such a blessing catching up with old friends and knowing you're still friends although your lives have gone so different from each others.

Ned is much better with people than me, I think, he immediately grabbed Liane's husband Guido's finger and dragged him to the toys to play with him. Liane's dad got the same treatment. His comment was: "I never held a little boy!". Understandable, he himself had 4 daughters, and so far there are only granddaughters:o)))). Which might excuse the fact, that -when we went for a walk- Ned got himself a bright pink doll stroller and fell deeply in love with it :o)