This is a post I've avoided writing... :-(
As I've mentioned before, expat life is pretty transient, much like the Armed Forces. I'm not sure I'll get used to it....and so another string of friends and acquaintances are leaving over the next few months. I get a bit cross when I start to get to know someone and they leave! That's you, Adamson/Fitzgerald/Yelland!
But it hurts a little more when a close friend is leaving. I'm still in touch with The Other Mrs. Mitchell, who is now in Germany ... hopefully a summer visit in our campervan! Miss you, darling!
This time round, it's Domestic Goddess who's off...you gorgeous woman and friend...she leaves in June to return to the UK, at least for a few years before the next adventure whisks her and her family off. I think she has become so accustomed to expat life that she's already looking forward to the next stint! A break in fresh and green UK first and then who knows!
I remember meeting her less than a month after we had moved here. I knew I'd love it here but I still felt very isolated and nervous about living in a completely different culture. So meeting her came at the right time!
I was beginning to look for a nursery for C and one of the ladies who has been here for years gave me her number. I called and we hit it off instantly. She took my son and I to the nursery, which was run by a lovely Yorkshire woman (also soon to return to UK I think...). We then met for a coffee in Azaiba and I met two other girls who would become firm friends along the line too (Mrs. K and The Other Mrs. Mitchell). And that, as they say, was that.
Despite only knowing each other for a couple of years now, we soon learnt to recognise when each other was feeling less than happy here. When she answers 'oh, you know, plodding along,' I knew she wasn't exactly bouncing with the joys of spring! We'd have a chat and a rant and then it all seemed a bit better, to me anyway, just to know, if nothing else, that I still had a genuine friend here.
She has a great knack of reducing me to tears too! That sounds awful! But I think we are similar emotional creatures and react in similar ways to certain things. All she has to do is listen, genuinely listen and I end up crying on her shoulder or ranting in her ear.
But we've had some fun too, honest! Kids parties, Wii games nights, glamorous dressing up for many Balls, less than glamorous dressing-down and roughing-it camping at the beach, grown-ups' birthday parties (a huge number 40 made out of carrot cake for Hubby!) ... I know that I could write so much here but I can't remember some of the things we have got up to ... which makes me sad as now is the time to remember everything now that she is leaving.
And I've avoided writing this to the point that DG has left and returned to UK shores. Maybe it's not sinking in and won't do until I get back to Oman and she's not around :'-(
On the upside, I am in the UK and we might go camp on their drive for a night (in the van) and to finish it off, we're off to see The Other Mitchells in Germany!
Some friends are just so worth hanging on to, no matter how far apart they are...
As I've mentioned before, expat life is pretty transient, much like the Armed Forces. I'm not sure I'll get used to it....and so another string of friends and acquaintances are leaving over the next few months. I get a bit cross when I start to get to know someone and they leave! That's you, Adamson/Fitzgerald/Yelland!
But it hurts a little more when a close friend is leaving. I'm still in touch with The Other Mrs. Mitchell, who is now in Germany ... hopefully a summer visit in our campervan! Miss you, darling!
This time round, it's Domestic Goddess who's off...you gorgeous woman and friend...she leaves in June to return to the UK, at least for a few years before the next adventure whisks her and her family off. I think she has become so accustomed to expat life that she's already looking forward to the next stint! A break in fresh and green UK first and then who knows!
I remember meeting her less than a month after we had moved here. I knew I'd love it here but I still felt very isolated and nervous about living in a completely different culture. So meeting her came at the right time!
I was beginning to look for a nursery for C and one of the ladies who has been here for years gave me her number. I called and we hit it off instantly. She took my son and I to the nursery, which was run by a lovely Yorkshire woman (also soon to return to UK I think...). We then met for a coffee in Azaiba and I met two other girls who would become firm friends along the line too (Mrs. K and The Other Mrs. Mitchell). And that, as they say, was that.
Despite only knowing each other for a couple of years now, we soon learnt to recognise when each other was feeling less than happy here. When she answers 'oh, you know, plodding along,' I knew she wasn't exactly bouncing with the joys of spring! We'd have a chat and a rant and then it all seemed a bit better, to me anyway, just to know, if nothing else, that I still had a genuine friend here.
She has a great knack of reducing me to tears too! That sounds awful! But I think we are similar emotional creatures and react in similar ways to certain things. All she has to do is listen, genuinely listen and I end up crying on her shoulder or ranting in her ear.
But we've had some fun too, honest! Kids parties, Wii games nights, glamorous dressing up for many Balls, less than glamorous dressing-down and roughing-it camping at the beach, grown-ups' birthday parties (a huge number 40 made out of carrot cake for Hubby!) ... I know that I could write so much here but I can't remember some of the things we have got up to ... which makes me sad as now is the time to remember everything now that she is leaving.
And I've avoided writing this to the point that DG has left and returned to UK shores. Maybe it's not sinking in and won't do until I get back to Oman and she's not around :'-(
On the upside, I am in the UK and we might go camp on their drive for a night (in the van) and to finish it off, we're off to see The Other Mitchells in Germany!
Some friends are just so worth hanging on to, no matter how far apart they are...
1 comment:
Love you loads Mrs M from DG xx ps new pad doesn't even have a drive!!
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