09 December, 2001 - 5:56 a.m.

I spent yesterday afternoon walking around in the city swapping stories with my best friend of grades 8-10 while we did the girly thing and browsed the stores. She and I were never able to pinpoint when we stopped being best friends .. but it was so good to be able to laugh and reminisce with her - and have her tell me that she'd missed me.

I'd missed her too, and it's nice to know that sometimes you're not the only one who's left behind after a phased out friendship thinking back on the good and bad times. I mean, I think it must be one of the worst feelings in the world to think that you're the only one who cared enough for it to matter to you when you weren't part of each others lives anymore.

So there she and I were, walking along side by side in the warm afternoon sunshine - swinging our shopping bags, flipping our hair, and giggling like the school girls we were of yore. It was a wonderful feeling :) And as she dropped me off out front my place, my date of weeks past pulled up and completed my afternoon (and evening, night, and morning!) by emerging from his car with a huge smile, a hug .. and a picnic on the backseat.

Sure it's corny, but hey, what girl doesn't like cornball stuff like that?

We drove down to my favouritest hangout in the world, and sat and ate and drank and talked for what seemed like hours without taking a break. The sun slowly set behind us, turning the sky all shades of different colours, and we lay on the grassy bank on our backs and counted the individual stars as they emerged and twinkled at us from their dusky blankets. The sweet summer breeze - smelling slightly of seaweed and whatever else is in the river - blowing laughter, song and happy voices gently over us in soft waves as the groups of friends and families around us slowly got up and left. And still we lay there, in our own little cocoon, quietly telling little stories for what seemed like forever. And it practically was, for the next thing I knew, the sky line that touches the hills across from us were turning a paler shade of blue. Then peachy reds and pinks and oranges and yellows.

A multitude of different colours for a multitude of different feelings.

But they were all nice feelings. The kind you get when you wake up in your super comfy bed with your super warm doona covering you, and your super snuggleable teddy bear tucked into the crook of your arm, and the prospect of a super relaxing day ahead of you.

I looked at my watch, and it was 4:10am. Where the hell did the last 10 hours just go? Surely not into muted conversation and cold chicken sandwiches. But it had.

And it was simply *amazing*

All I really wanted to do as soon as he dropped me off at home was to go to bed and just re-live the last 12 hours minute for minute .. but you can never really retell a story as well once the moment has passed, can you?

So there you go :) Adieu.