WEEK 7 Verdadero Amiga

Holy shit! I can’t believe on how I slack I have been on my gratitude challenge *slaps wrist in disgust*

I’ve been soooooo distracted as of late, I have no idea how I forgot a week...or 2! I can’t even remember what I did that week. I believe that was the week I went to Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) – haven’t been there since I was 16 or 17 – that is nearly 10 years ago! It looks smaller than what I remember but I guess my mind has grown a lot since then. I mean it has been that long that you can no longer jump off the diving boards- any of them! I remember as a child when our Aunty took Maddie and I to MSAC, Maddie and I used to jump off the diving boards all the time and if my memory serves me correctly, we used to jump off the BIG ONE (10m high)!!! Have I impressed you yet? haha

Oh yeah, I also went to the cinemas, which has also been a while too. Haha looks like I don’t get out much but I guess I get up to other things or prefer to wait opposed to paying stupid costs to see a film that could cost less than $5 to hire. Anyway two things about going to the cinemas:

1. I saw Black Panther and it was fantastic, punny and the right amount of action AND

2. OMG recliner seats

Now recliner seats are the bee’s bloody knees but I have one issue with them – they are just not romantic at all! What happened to the old type of chairs that you could lift the centre arm and cuddle into someone whereas now I feel I am sitting 1 metre away from them. C’mon guys did you get Hummer to design your chairs. Dates are meant to be cute & romantic (for all those questioning or stating dates don’t have to be, just remember at the beginning of your relationship with your special someone & how special these “dates” were) holding hands, the casual shoulder hold or as I call it the counting shoulder method haha- but NOOOOO you basically curl up in your chair and watch the movie as if you are at home, inhaling your emotions in the form of puffed corn.

Also, I think I went out for a late night (1am) feast as a belated Valentine’s Day date and it was AMAZE-BALLS! There was breakfast food and pancakes- what could get any better than that! It twas pretty cute, not gonna lie.

Now let’s get to the point. This week was about paying gratitude to a friend. Throughout my short 25.5 years of living on Earth, I have made friends here and there and I have definitely lost friends due to distance or just naturally growing apart as we got older. I have friends who I have not seen for over 2 years but when I catch up with them it is like these 2 years never existed and distance was never an issue. There ae people in my life who I call a friend but actually don’t talk to, yet when I think about it they are more like family as I have known them either since I was 2 or from primary school.

I am very hesitant in making new friends, why? Well friends can be hard work. I feel in order to keep friends you almost have to work harder than having a boy/girl friend. Making new friends is a difficult game and is not like it used to be when we were children and you could go up to someone and be like “do you wanna be my friend?” and enjoy playing in the sandpit for the rest of the day. Oh no, now it is the worry and hopes that when you chose people they will be there for you the fun, the sad and the difficult times. You will be thinking to yourself; do we like the same thing, will they think this is funny, do they enjoy my company? So many questions will be running through your head but you just have to go for it. What do you have to lose? Nothing.

Hardest part with friends is finding time to hang out with them outside of work. I am lucky enough to work with people who I can call friends but one friend in particular (who I do not work with) that comes to mind, were we both make the effort and plan our catch ups is who I am paying gratitude to: DIANA

Now it is not DI-ANA, it is DEE-AR-NA and you best remember how to pronounce it right as she hates the other way haha. Diana is my Colombian friend and moved here like 8 or so years ago without speaking a word of English- nada! She is now fluent in English and is pretty damn good at Italian (you are in my eyes) too!

I met Diana nearly 18 months ago, yeah I have not known her that long but she is one of those friends that you have met and just automatically click and get along. It was at a friend’s pre-hens shindig to help her find a wedding dress and iron out some finer details where I basically spent the 4 days with the bride to be, her cousin and Diana. Diana and I pretty much spent the entire time on the floor laughing or in the spa (drinking) and laughing more. We have been there for each other at our worse and at our best! To me you are family, you get me without questioning, you offer the best advice you can give and would drop things to spend time with me either for fun or for support. How we met might not be the way it is now but I am happy that through it all I can still call you my friend, because at that point in my life I thought I lost all of my friends and my meaning for moving back to Melbourne…BUT you did you and showed me otherwise.

You have your quirks and I love them about you, for example, I have honestly never met a tidier and organised person, even when you think it is a mess- let me tell you it isn’t! I wish we went on more adventures but it is difficult when our shifts never line up haha but maybe we need to organise quarterly adventures and take the days off together in advance! We will get through our list of things we want to do one day but for now I love just catching up; be it at mine, yours or our second parents’ home. I congratulate you and your boyfriend on your new adventure- being parents to two new puppies in your life – Leo and Luna. They are absolutely stunning, adorable and honestly just wanted to take them home with me- but hey this now gives me more reasons to come visit you.

I raise my glass to you hun; to then, now and tomorrow. To building memories and laughing over cucumbers whenever we shop. Grateful is an understatement on how much you mean to me!

Because I am so many weeks behind, I will be starting the next gratitude for week 8 NOW haha so you should expect to be seeing it in an hour or so about my Job and then if you are still awake and not bored from reading about my little rants/gratitude about life I will be posting about this week’s gratitude- Things I liked about Summer – rather good timing as it was the last day of Summer this week.