Any given Sunday,

Circa 2004.

We sit in her room with a list, one by one crossing off different things, trying to narrow it down to what we want to do that day. It is a ritual that we go through every time we visit each other, because both of us is so indecisive, and scared of choosing something that the other will not like. I cross out 4, she puts a line through number 2 and 7, she cheats because we always put "go for a walk" on the list even though we both know it's never going to happen. Some days we end up going for a bike ride around the town, once we sat and watched candles burn for four hours straight, simply because we couldn't tear our eyes away. Once, for christmas, I got a set of walkie talkies (no, not make up or a princess dress, I was pretty much a boy) and we spent the afternoon tuning into peoples phone calls in the front yard. We even 'invented' our own super cleaning product by mixing together everything in her Mum's laundry cupboard, in secret of course. We got so gassed out in the shed that we thought we were actually going to die, so we went and played in a tree to get as much oxygen as we could into our lungs. We had these great plans. I was going to be in the olympics, and she was going to sing the national anthem, Nikki Webster style, at the opening ceremony.

On one afternoon, there were plovers in the backyard and they had laid eggs in the middle of the grass. She is notoriously terrified of birds, so in my utter brilliance I decided that the only way for her to conquer this fear was to get out there and face them. We geared up with random cricket gloves, rollerblading kneepads and golf clubs, tying pillows to ourselves with scarves. We sat on the skateboard and opened an umbrella over our heads, wearing bike helmets and swimming goggles. As we rolled on the concrete towards the backyard, we were so terrified, but so excited at the same time. We must have looked absolutely ridiculous, but it was so much fun. I can't even remember what happened in the end, but I think her fear of birds only got worse. What can I say, I tried.

 I am so grateful for not having myspace or facebook. I am so glad that we got out and ran wild in the trees at the beach. I am so grateful to have had a friend that would agree to go through all this and still like me at the end. I miss you, and even though we don't talk hardly at all anymore, I always wonder what you're up to, what you're doing. I guess that it happens like this. But I know that, if you need me somewhere down the track, you can bet I will be right there.