Friends – episode two

Today, I spoke at length to a woman I've known since we were 13 (she is two days younger than me). We hadn't spoken for 17 years but thanks to my faffing about on t'internet, especially Google, I came across her brother, who passed my details on to D. She called me mid-morning and we chatted for more than an hour, reminiscing and pledging to meet soon.

It was good to hear news of people I'd completely lost touch with, and it was fabulous to speak to D. She sounds the same. We were good friends for a while and share quite a few teenage memories. Apparently every time she sees Morten Harket on the television, she remembers my obsession with the man and the rest of his group, of course.

We lost touch after choosing different A-levels and then, well, the years passed at an alarming rate that has added up to nearly two decades. She knew from another mutual ex-classmate that I'm married, but I didn't know that she was a wife let alone a mum of a six-year-old girl. It is refreshing to hear that we share similar views on things. She's definitely not just her daughter's mother or her husband's wife.

Coincidentally, another schoolfriend who I got to know around the same time at high school, K, is meeting me for dinner soon. We three know one another but the two of them weren't especially close, as far as I can recall, and possibly won't have been in touch since school.

Cor, get me, all that makes me sound like some kind of (hateful) Miss Popular but it was more a case of me having more in common with K and D separately than they had with one another, and I have known K for far longer than I've known D. During the time our paths coincided, I was the 'Carrie' glue to their Miranda and Charlotte, if you see what I mean, to use a rather silly, shallow Sex and the City analogy.

I only got back in touch with K after she tracked me down via the internet, which was lovely of her. K and myself were very close friends and stayed in contact until we were around 23, when we drifted apart due to her moving away to study. She lived around the corner from me, and as teenagers we had a fabulous time plotting things to do with shy boys, as well as talking about everything ranging from divinity to 'doosies' (an odd word used by our mad form teacher). In some ways, K hasn't changed at all, which is a good thing. She's got a heart of gold.

Anyway, I'm happy to have them both in my diary again. I last saw K two years ago and am ashamed to say that I still have a present bought for her birthday in... 2005. I've bought an early gift for her birthday this year. Ah. Just remembered... I spent eight hours in Piccadilly one Saturday morning in 1985 waiting outside the BAFTA place (if indeed it is BAFTA?) with poor K to catch a glimpse of Morten, Pal and Mags. K and I had only eaten Mars bars for breakfast and were very cold and tired. K had wanted to eat breakfast at home before we rushed to the Tube but I didn't let her, saying we had already left too late, hence the Mars bars. (I still feel bad about this.)

Pal came up to me and signed my notebook. I never wrote with the pen after that, treasuring it carefully. I don't think I washed the fingerless glove I wore, either (he shook my hand!!). Ah, those were the days! I was playing up to the TV cameras something rotten, as well, not caring who saw me acting like a crazed Beatles fan (well, not quite, but I was only 15)...

Now, apropos of Paris... the pictures of the hotel I'm staying in are slick and modern, a bit like the Metropolitan in London. I shall take my camera, of course. I'm very excited despite having a 'foggy' day as far as the tiredness goes. H, the friend who had wanted to come to Paris with me is in fact going there (ish) the following week as her husband has booked a surprise EuroDisney trip for them and their son, which will be good fun for them before their second baby arrives. And my ex-Londoner-now-Parisienne amie, Inz, who is moving into a flat of her own soon, will be around when I'm in Paris, which means I'll get to enjoy lots of her company after all, which is excellent.

As for sleep, well... I didn't sleep well but I have to try to do so tonight as tomorrow's pre-holiday workload threatens to be humongous. And that, is the first time I've ever written the word 'humongous'.