#52Stories, Week 8, What have been the most important and valued friendships of your life ?

These two, these are them.

I've already told you how important and special Jo has been as a friend through my whole life.

My other bestie was Donna. We had a bunch of fun after we met in Sydney back in 1980 !

I had gone to Sydney in 1979 with another friend and ended up flatting with her sisters for 12 months. Things were good there, and we parted friends when they returned to New Zealand. I needed to find myself a new place to live with the minimal belongings I owned.

My initial thought was to find a place on my own, I'd done living with other people by then. But, that isn't what happened and it was probably the best thing ever as I ended up with a bunch of friends who came from all sorts of backgrounds, and from all around Australia.

I moved into a boarding house. I applied for a room in one in Homebush, which was a lovely old villa with wide verandahs. But ended up with a room in Campsie. The guy who owned the boarding houses - at least three in Sydney, staffed them with a housekeeper. In this case the housekeeper from Homebush was relocating to Campsie and she had picked which boarders should move with her.

Sue, the housekeeper did all the cooking and cleaning through the week and ensured there was food for us all to feed ourselves over the weekends. She and her husband and 3 kids lived onsite.

When I first moved in I shared a room with a girl named Liz. She was from near Newcastle (Red Head I think). She was only there a few weeks before moving back home. Our room could sleep three, and just before Liz left another girl moved in. Her boyfriend dropped her off with her things. 

It wasn't long before we were inseparable, as thick as thieves. We had so much fun, playing cards, drinking (just a bit), playing pool, weekends in Forster, weekends and late nights shopping or just hanging out. She was younger than me but that didn't matter. We moved to another boarding house in Hurstville and were roomies again there. 

We bought a car for $50 off one of our housemates, it had failed it's permit inspection thingie because it had a hole in the muffler. We fixed it by supergluing a 5 cent piece over the hole. Lots of fun times were had driving around in Bertha.

Swimming at Wanda beach in the middle of June. What ?! Were we crazy ?? I think maybe.

Later when I was living in Bexley she moved in too. Then when we were living in Queensland, so was she. There was never a dull moment with her around, and so many laughs.

I don't know how we managed to stay in touch with no cellphones. We both moved around a lot, but the mail always got through.

When we moved back from Adelaide to Sydney we stayed with her and her little family. Our truck full of furniture - and two cats - parked out the back until we moved into our own place.

She was always there for me, my only actual dinkum bestie the entire time I lived in Australia, and both times I moved back to New Zealand we kept our connection strong. Trips to the zoo with our babies, shopping, coffee or just sitting chatting and passing the time. ALWAYS catching up when I visited Sydney, staying sometimes and others just arriving at the door and saying "SURPRISE !!"

We went through a lot together, I don't know what I would have done without her when I was a brand new Mum, living far away from my family. We had differences, but never arguments. She made the BEST cheesecake. She did ironing to earn a bit of extra money - anyone who willingly does ironing deserves a medal in my book. 

Life takes such unexpected turns sometimes, and all of a sudden she was gone. Taken from her family and her friends too soon. She always had a smile, and her family were her world. I miss her so much.

#52Stories, Week 7, Who was your first best friend ? Are you still in contact with each other ? What do you remember about the friendship.

I really am running behind schedule with this !! But I WILL complete the challenge,

Anyway, who was my first best friend ? 

I had friends at kindergarten and at school who I used to have play dates with after school and in the holidays, and there were the girls next door who I played with mostly at weekends.

But, best friends ?

I think it would be Jo. 

We were buds at Miropiko Kindergarten, she was Joanna then. We went to different primary schools, not miles apart - but far enough that we didn't bump into each other at all.

At Peachgrove Intermediate some seven years later we met up again. By this time she was Joey, she still is to my Dad.

We had lots of fun, in class, at lunch times, after school and at weekends. At Intermediate we got to take cooking and sewing class. Jo was a whizz at sewing ! I was extremely jealous as it seemed I had inherited my Mum's genes and sewing frustrated me. Like Mum I did a lot of "negative sewing". Later though, away from school I did manage to overcome some of the frustration, and these days, if needs must - I can sew with the best of them. (well maybe not THE best, but there isn't as much negativity going on).

When we moved to Wellington, Jo and I became pen pals. In the school holidays she once came and stayed with me, and another time I went and stayed with her. If we visited at other times, I always made sure to meet up with her. 

We continued to write letters all through college, and our early working life. Our first overseas holiday (without parents) was to Fiji for two weeks, just us.

When I moved to Australia we continued to write, I must have used up all the pages in the "D" part of her address book with all the moving around I did ! (Ashfield, Artarmon, Campsie, Hurstville, Werris Creek, Bexley, Oatley, Clontarf, Margate)

When I moved back to NZ briefly in the early eighties, we actually saw each other again. Both married, and Jo with two little girls. I think we still wrote when we were here - long distance phone calls were an extravagance back then, and it was at least a decade before cellphone (bricks) or the internet.

Then it was back across the ditch for me and the writing resumed. Swapping recipes and news from Adelaide and then Sydney again. Then I joined the Mum club and we had more to share and compare. When I visited NZ we caught up again and the girls met each other too.

And so it went on. When I moved back to Hamilton we saw each other more, and then I moved to Wellington. The writing continued, and phone calls too on the odd occasion. New Zealand Post must have LOVED us. Some school holidays I rented a car and we managed to visit.

The internet came along and letters were replaced a bit by emails, and phone calls became cheaper - then text messaging too.

Today, we email, text and facebook each other to keep in contact AND visit.

Jo is the only friend I have constantly kept in contact with for most of my life. Whenever we see each other, it is like we had only seen each other the day before. Nothing is ever awkward. We still laugh about the same things, our interests have changed a little, and our lives have taken different paths, but our friendship has been constant. 

I hope it stays that way.