The coming of Dawn

It's a wonderful feeling when an old treasured friend calls you when she's in town and tries her utmost to arrange to meet you, even though she's got a family in tow, a hundred and one relatives to meet and ten thousand more things to do.

I was overjoyed when I received her call, and she was surprised that I could recognise her voice even though she hadn't called me in years. I replied and said, "Of course, I can recognise your voice!" I was happy just to hear her voice. I wanted to see her kid but I told her that I could settle for handphone shots of him, plus her husband in the background. Ha ha ha! I always like to have digs at her husband because I know he can take them in the right spirit, and he also gives as well as he takes.

She smsed me one to two days later to suggest meeting up for lunch near my new office. So we arranged to meet at 1pm at Far East Square. I told her that I had about 1.5 hours for lunch, give or take a few minutes. We settled on Botan, a Japanese restaurant.

We placed our orders and she showed me photos of her kid. I remembered that there were 41 shots and I saw every single one of them. He's extremely cute!!!!!!! And her husband hadn't changed a bit since the last time I saw them (which says a lot, I think!). She was moaning the fact that all her single friends look the same as they did the last time she caught up with them, while she is not in as good a shape because of her son. I told her that children are a blessing from God, and also her son's very cute and very chubby!!!! He's about 1.5 years old.

We had a very good conversation over lunch. It's quite amazing but it's as if we had seen each other only yesterday because we were pretty at ease with one another. I gave her my update (spiritual life, new job etc), while she updated me on her family life and how they've been doing etc. I think my friends underestimate how much I value spending time alone with them. My smile didn't leave my face during the entire 1.5 hours.

I'm happy to see her and know that she's happy, and I think she feels the same way, too, about me. Lunch went by too fast but when we went our separate ways, I was still happy because I know I will catch up with her many times again in future.