Do you have little habits that you maintained as a kid that you lost in time?
Did you display behaviours that you no longer feel you have the discipline for?
Who are the friends, once so close, who you’d like to be close to again?
OK, so there are two real lines of questioning there, cause I have two little stories to tell.
I enjoyed most of my childhood. I occasionally lamented the fact that we didn’t have any other kids that grew up on our street. In fact, we had a hospital for the terminally ill on our street, so residents were a lot closer to dispatching than hatching on the life-scale. That said, it wasn’t that big an issue. Weekends with the family friends like the Bevans , and my brother to keep me company during the week (Amy, my sister remained a bit of an enigma to me till later in life).
A big part of why life was fairly easy was because I had a plethora of special friends that could keep me company. Leguin, Lewis, Tolkien and Rosenberg. I was a tireless reader! At one stage in year 8 I was reading up to 100 pages a night! They were glory days.
But work crowds such things. Time becomes more valuable & opportunities fade & die. A couple of years ago I realised that despite a reputation as a Bibliophile, I barely read at all! It was never a plan, but I had slowly starved myself of that lovely habit.
Well, it has been something that I have been working on for the last little while & so far this year I have come good. I am cruising through a number of different books & loving every second of it. The Irony has been that it hasn’t really impacted on my ability to get work done. If anything, I find myself rejuvinated by the reading & ready to do more effective study!
It’s like finding an old friend.
Speaking of which, I was lucky enough to go out to dinner the other night for Als’ 30th Birthday party. I have known Als for 15 years now, but it has been a good 4 years since we have hung out a couple of weeks in a row. Well, it is great to see that some friends you just seem to get on with & the whole time thing doesn’t matter. Dinner on Friday night was awesome! Not only did I get to catch up with Als, but a bunch of other old-school crew too!
So, here it is.
Cheers to those things ones lost.
And here’s to those who return.
Finally, a couple of pics to capture the moments…

This is me reading up on Manly head. A great place to finish “How we are Hungry” a collection of short stories by Dave Eggers.

Als & Jen, Sisters, show off their “Blue Steel”, ala Zoolander.