So we were sitting there eating lunch and watching 'Shameless' on BBC America, when there was a knock on the door.

Not expecting anyone and being the type who gets irritated by door-knockers, I was all for ignoring it, but he, being the type to relish confrontations with door-knockers got up.

I'm SO glad he did, because standing on the doorstep was one of my 'best' friends, from England, who I first met about 20 years ago!

I've only seen her once in the last 10 years, for lunch on a trip back 'home'...last time I went, I didn't have a free day and missed her.

Through nothing more than scribbled Christmas card notes (on my part at least) we've kept in touch over the years...she hasn't changed a bit, a lovely, bubbly person inside and out...one of those people you just can't help but feel happy whenever she's around.

Seeing her there on my doorstep, made me realise I've had some special people in my life over the years and that, hey, maybe they liked me too!

I guess when we moved here there was a need for me to find my feet, in new surroundings and a new culture...and with two toddlers, it was all too easy to find an excuse to not get out to meet people.
When the children went to school that did start to change, but I guess, by then I had changed too (at least on the face of it).

Sitting there 'talking the hind legs off a donkey', it was like being transported back in time - two twenty year old giggling blondes, (now wearing 40/41 year old bodies *lol*)...cheeky, sarcastic, laughing, remembering...
She even remembered my goldfish jumping out of his bowl and sticking to the newly painted walls! - (a story we have both shared with our sons).

How I wish she could have stayed longer.

I'm SO grateful she took the time out of her trip to track me down and surprise me like that, she's really made me take stock and appreciate what good friends I have, be they overseas, over borders, or here in the USA.

...and I PROMISE to write to them before Christmas.