My friend Tricia...

On Friday I went out to lunch with my friend Tricia. We met in 1976 when Tricia was in her last year of Teachers' College. She came to our school that year to do her prac teaching blocks. During one block she spent 4 weeks with my Year 7 class and we became great mates. We discovered that we both went to the same high school, but because I was five years older than her, I'd left by the time she started.
When Tricia graduated she was appointed to my school and completed her probationary year with us before being transferred out of the area.

Cafe Urbano; my steak sandwich

Every year, in at least one set of holidays, we'd meet up for lunch or to share our mutual interest in sewing clothes and patchwork as well as a craze then...Hobbytex! And so the friendship continued with transfers for Tricia (single people always seem to get more far flung transfers) and eventually motherhood for me. Tricia was DD2's godmother too.  Then I started relief teaching for a while. Tricia was so helpful when I did relief teaching as she gathered together a huge pile of resources suitable for year levels that I had never taught...that is 1-4. Tricia sewed for my children and occasionally baby sat as well. She was a great support when my marriage broke down.

At Cafe Urbano; Tricia's BLAT

When DD2 was little, Tricia bought her first home. She made it into a lovely comfortable home and improved the garden areas. Then after a number of years, Tricia bought a brand new home in a new estate. She had to make all the gardens and she again did a great job. But, just as I've found in the last 10 or so years, the job of teaching has become harder than it ever was. We work long days and on most weekends as well to keep up. Tricia had planned that the new house was going to be her home until the 'pine box'. But she has so little time to clean a big house and even less time to keep a garden in order. As she said to me the other day...'I find my priorities have changed...I no longer enjoy my garden'. So the big house is being readied for sale and Tricia will be downsizing...a lowset townhouse with a courtyard is her first preference. The other preference is that she plans to move 'in' from the shire where she lives now...she'll be closer to her mum, sister and of course me! lol  Hmmmm maybe some nice pots for the courtyard would be a nice housewarming gift...but I'm getting ahead of myself!

Cafe Urbano; within 15 minutes of this photo being taken, we experienced a torrential downpour!