Friends. Such a simple word yet it is so hard to define in actual terms.

Come March 2010, I would have been here a good 7 years. It is not a long time, but definitely not a short time. I have had my ups and downs and I am pretty sure I never thought I would see a number such as 2010 – but I am going to soon. I have staunchly refused to admit any form of homesickness, except once ever when things went downhill and all I wanted was daddy.

Yet, I will now and then admit that I miss the friends I do have in Singapore. For all the crap I ever lived through as a teenager who claims more dramatics than I really should have, for all the feeling of lonliness I ever mentioned, I did have friends. Not many close ones, mind you, but enough for me to go home to and feel like I missed out on a big part of their lives (marriage, kids, divorce – oh yes! divorce!)

Norjit flew in on Nov 30th and took her little tour around Australia with her husband and a friend. This would be her second international trip in her currently not so old life, where else others would have marked it off as one of those things they are repetitively doing. I didn’t get to see her until today, the second last day of her trip.

I was sorely disappointed I couldn’t spent more time with her, but I have never been one for doing touristy things anyways (seriously? letting people drone on and on?) and after today, a part of me was GLAD I didn’t have any guided tours for most of my life, much less going around Australia with her on a guided tour.

I do miss her, and throughout the 4-5 hours that we were together, we gasbagged like old ladies, rushing through conversations while politely inclining our heads towards the tour operator. Very much like how we used to “perform” during school excursions.

When we finally had some free and easy time at the War Memorial, our last stop before she heads back up to Sydney, we politely walked through all the exhibits, then ran to the cafe to have a more intense conversation – for all of 30 minutes or so.

It was as if time and space did nothing, hell I even spoke to her mum on her phone. It all ended too soon though, and soon she was on her way back to the coach, up Mount Ainslie.

Despite Uni, despite all forms of formal schooling, there’s many things that formal education can’t teach. How personalities meld, how lives changes and how the air moves when despite all the changes personalities stays together… I am glad for all that I have and know.

Now, if only she had stayed long enough to meet Aileen, oh God.