Girlfriends. Friday January 22, 2011

There is a saying “you chose your friends but not your family” – or words to that effect. Living so far away from my family, I am acutely aware of the need for friends and so I suspect are many other people in the same situation as us. Even for the children, now at college and boarding school. They know that their family will always be there for them, but their friends make their daily lives so much the better.

During my life, I feel very blessed to have found great friends in many different locations around the world. They know who they are and l love every one of them. Sometimes you don’t hear or speak to them for months at a time, but you know that when you do, it will be as if you had spoken only yesterday. I love Face Book, because all of a sudden, I am reconnecting with long lost friends that have drifted in and out of my life at various times. Friends of friends are now surfacing – old school friends and in a very modern way, life is become more enriched because of it. You remember why you were friends in the first place and can almost pick up where you left of years ago.

Sure there is the curiosity of wondering “ how much weight has been gained, wrinkles developed or how grey is the hair?” But I genuinely love hearing how everyone is doing, how the kids are doing and what direction their life is taking. It beats the “round robin” Christmas letters any time.

So this blog is dedicated to everyone that I call a friend.

In Sao Paulo, I have been lucky enough to find several really good friends. They are the friends that I will keep in contact with for the rest of my life. They know who they are. I met two of them on the same day, about two weeks after I arrived. The other two I met a couple of weeks later.

Have you ever had a moment in your life when you look at someone and think “I could chum up with you?” It is an amazing feeling and if you are if by chance you meet a new friend at the time when they are looking for friendship as well, then there is a double blessing.

So five of us came together. We are all pretty much in the same boat. Children have fled the nest, husbands are busy with stressful careers and family is at least 5,000 miles away. We need each other, we laugh, cry and support each other and when one of us is having a tough time we are there for each other. My waistline is struggling to cope with all the lunches, coffees and dinners we have together. If a husband is travelling we arrange girls’ nights, go to the movies, walk dogs and rarely a day goes by without some sort of communication between some or all of us. Even when we are away, email and Face Book keep us going.

This morning the last of our group arrived back from the States after spending Christmas with family. She left her elderly parents, sister and only son to travel by herself for about 24 hours to get back to her husband in Sao Paulo. We knew it was going to be a tough trip for her, so one of the group had the mad cap idea that we go to the airport, banners held aloft to welcome her back. We had to enlist the help of her husband who was sworn to secrecy. We seriously would have killed him if he had given the game away.

Yesterday was spent plotting the final details, buying school supplies and sitting down like third graders with glitter glue, coloured paper and magic markers making a “Welcome Home” banner.

You have to remember that traffic in Sao Paulo is just awful and a trip to the airport is to be avoided like the plague. No body does the trip unless the absolutely have to. It is about 20 miles outside the city (not that distance is really relevant) and it can take anything from 26 minutes (the record held by Charles and Marcelo during a Brazil World cup football game when the roads were not surprisingly empty) to easily over four hours.

So we left this morning with plenty of time. Two cars in convoy. One for the girls and one for the luggage on the return trip. Of course we were early, but coffee and laughs kept us going. We stood by the barrier, signs at the ready. Quite what everyone thought of us I have no idea. Marcelo now has concrete proof that his boss’s wife is seriously mad.

And so she came out, luggage piled high and clearly very weary after such a long trip. But who wouldn’t laugh at two middle aged women brandishing banners of a very fetching pink and blue, covered in glitter glue with your name on. We laughed until we nearly cried. We had the effect that we had hoped for and she loved it.

We piled into the car and didn’t stop laughing until we got back into Sao Paulo where we met the other two members of the gang of five and whisked her off to lunch. Who needs a shower and sleep when you can substitute it for laughs?

Girls I love you all!