It’s been said that my mind must be like an ant-farm. All my stories going off in different directions, yet all finishing at the same place. I start one story and as I talk, I’m reminded of something else, and so begins story number two. Then three. And four – you get the gist. I’ll then come back and finish the stories, yet in no particular order. So, if folks can follow my train of thought, and the stories weaved from them, then they are best friend material indeed!
There is one such friend I have known for over eleven years. We first met working for the same company and there were those who thought we were an odd pair, not compatible at all. We all know that saying, opposites attract. My best friend is the one who is all light and free yet needs someone to help keep her grounded; and I’m the opposite, I sometimes need lifted, and she does that for me. We counter each other. Those who know, will know.
Though our friendship hasn’t all been sweetness and light, we have had some…discussions, yet we’re still firm friends to this day. Due to distance, we can’t meet up as often as we once did, but when we do, we start from where we left off as if no time had passed at all. We have our imaginary post-it notes and pins, as we always have so much to talk about, we need to keep order of our stories, and which ones need an ending. ‘Let’s put a pin in sausages, and we’ll come back to that’, ‘let’s post-it family.’ Can anyone else relate?
One day we decided to go on holiday together down to Norfolk to visit her folks, and though the holiday wasn’t plain sailing, it is one I remember with fondness. While there, we took a short trip to Cromer. It’s such a beautiful place and I would love to go back. The weather wasn’t the best, grey and overcast, so when it started to rain, we went into the arcades to wait it out. My friend loves the tuppence machines, and I prefer playing those that are a more energetic and give you tokens to collect for the tat in the prize shop. While she went off with a little skip in her step, her tub of coppers jingling, I went in search of a game to play.
What seemed like hours (in actual fact was only several minutes) my friend came and found me in the corner of the arcades, lobbing balls at rows of clowns. A river of tickets trickling out of the machine. There were three sets of these games side by side and my friend chose to play one, saying it looked like fun. Well, we were there for hours – no kidding this time. These clowns were so obnoxious. So much so that we joined forces to take them down!
‘Nah nah nee nah nah’. ‘You throw like a girl!’ Why you son of a …!
We looked each other in the eye, a silent war cry went off in our blood as if our ancestors of old, the Iceni (my friend’s English, I won’t hold that against her) and the Picts were calling us to rally. We rolled up our sleeves, planted our feet firmly and stood side by side on one machine. Coin after coin, lobbed ball after lobbed ball we were determined to down those clowns! And boy did we do just that. Several hours later, with a waterfall of tickets flowing, the last coin was played, the last ball was lobbed, and the last clown was downed. We collected our loot and chuckled all the way to the prize booth where we each got a mini-VW camper van money box, mine was green and not as tatty as I thought it would be. With the remaining tickets, I agreed my friend could use them to get her husband a minion toy, the one called Stu, as company for him in his work van. (Don’t lie. You love them just as much as the next person)
To this day, I still have that green mini-VW camper van money box, and it was the best day ever. Certainly worth getting a dead arm for.