A long time coming

Sometimes, the few friends that read this blog jokingly ask me when they're going to appear on it.  (Amanda!)  For some reason they find it amusing and to be honest, so do I.  So today, it's Ann-Marie's turn!

We've known each other for so long that we've seen each other transform from sweaty schoolgirls into hopefully less sweaty working women.  It was really great to see her again and chat over lunch and coffee.

She's getting married this year and asked me if I'd like to help her by taking some casual photos of her and the fiance for fun.  Would I ever!  I'm happy to practise taking pictures of anything and anyone and woe betide my guinea pigs because I can be quite slow and fussy.  I was delighted that she volunteered!  It'll be exciting to have time set aside in a quiet spot and with willing (and photogenic!) participants.  I have no idea if the pictures will be any good, but by all means, I'll have a bash.  (And there's a Beatles reference for ya.)

Sometimes we talk a lot about our days in school and how we were both misfits and had very few friends.  "I never thought we would make it," I say wistfully and we laugh, half-pleased, half-unable to believe that we're both (almost) grown up and holding down jobs.  

"I think sometimes, that we turned out better than the cool people," she said once, and we ruminated on that.  It's true that I'm sometimes surprised to find that I didn't at some point drop out of school or get into trouble or become completely ostracised for the rest of my life.  I mean, I wasn't the best kid to be around.  And my mother worried about me a lot.

Ann-Marie, on the other hand, always struck me as a quiet, unsure, organised, composed person, waiting to come into her own.  Today I watch her handle things with aplomb - she's responsible and sensible with money and the kind of warm-hearted and easily delighted person that is fun to be with. 

I don't know that we turned out better.  I recently saw one of the "cool kids" from school and she looked every bit as gorgeous and pulled together as I remember her.  But I think it's enough that so far, we turned out right.

(I know those boots are a little bit crazy but sometimes you have to get a lot done and sometimes you just have to do it all in cowboy shoes.)

I can't wait to take proper pictures of them!

And finally, as we were noshing on Japanese food, Ann-Marie said she liked reading blogs with nice writing and pointed out a few.  Then she said, "For example, I'm sure you would never write a line like... This is a cup of green tea.  You would find a nicer way to say it."

We both had to laugh.  "I do write lines like that!" I protested, "Besides, I don't know how else you would say it."

"You know what I mean."

Well then, Ann-Marie, this one's for you.

This is a cup of green tea.