Well hello again!  Guess what I have discovered?  There is a dashboard thingy on this site.. that tells me there are people reading... or at least glancing at the page.  And there are usually 10-12 of you.  But.. the exciting thing is, there was a couple of days where there were 40-50 of you!!  

Most of them have wandered off again, perhaps my writing style is a little too boring or it's a bit of the same old same old.. as in yep, did my yoga nidra today, weight's doing this or that, feeling great, or this happened or that happened etc etc etc.  

I was already thinking (yep, that was the sound you could hear!) last night about mixing things up a little more.  So it's not just a day in day out diary type of thing, but it actually talks about other bits and pieces along the way.  

Like my friend Tez for example.  Tez has been a friend for about 10 yrs now and we actually met online when both of us were going through some tough stuff.  He lives in a different state to me and we've spent time together a few times now (3 times now to be precise) and I will be going down to spend some time with him in a few weeks.

There's never been anything romantical between us, we have totally opposing views on some things (have to say that was an interesting!! time when we discovered that! but the friendship survived), but we have had some fun times laughing and discussing all kinds of deep and meaningful things.

In the early days of our friendship when we were frequently exchanging emails, I was dubbed Ernest.  This happened a few times and I couldn't figure out what on earth the Ernest thing was about.  Eventually it got the better of me and I asked.  Apparently it's because I wrote long emails, so I was nicknamed after Ernest Hemmingway which later was shortened to Erny.  So my emails would come addressed to Dear Erny.  It's eventually changed to Maz over time, his shortened version of my name.

Anyways, the first time I visited Tez, he brought me my favourite chocolates (and no, he didn't know they were some of my favs.. I'm very picky with chocolate so it was pretty amazing he chose some I love) and took me out to dinner at some Asian restaurant somewhere in Sydney (that narrows it down a bit!).  He ordered some steamboat thing I think it was called, delicious of course and we had plenty of conversation.  I was painfully shy and uptight, sort of fresh out of a long marriage.. if 18 mths later counts as fresh.. but we managed to pass the evening well enough.  

I went to the bathroom and came back to the table.  As I got near the table, he suddenly stood up, grabbed my hand and said C'mon Maz, time to get out of here.  And dragged me out, yelling quick run!  Hurry up Maz.  Run!  Run Maz Run!  So I'm running as best I could - I don't normally do running, but I was doing running of a sort - and all the time thinking what the hell is this about. Did we just do the bolt without paying?  Far out, first time out with him and he's got me doing something that will get me into all kinds of strife. Imagining being put in the lock up somewhere, trying to run faster, thinking holy sh** what have I just done?

And then I realised, hang on, no one is chasing us, yes one or two people are looking oddly at us but no one is terribly disturbed, no shouts or anything coming from the restaurant and he by this time, is leaning against the car laughing as he sees me putting it all together.  Cheeky bugger was just doing a little stirring and just wanted to see what my reaction would be!

The remainder of my visit was not so adrenalin inducing and revolved around visiting a variety of graveyards with the challenge of finding the oldest headstone.  He of course, would later say that's all I remember about that weekend.  Visiting graveyards.  Because I hadn't really visited a heap of graveyards in one day for any particular reason before. 

One of the things that amused me at one of the little graveyards we visited, was that some of the headstones were so old the writing had worn off... except for the masoner's name.  So you didn't know anything about the person below, but you did know which masoner was responsible for the headstone! 

Ironically it's something I don't mind doing now and find kind of interesting. I've dragged other people along to this crazy little past time too but that's a whole other story.    

However, running out of a restaurant and visiting graveyards wasn't all we did or all I remember.  We visited the Kiama blowholes, ate prawns near the water, had dinner at some little pub with a crap band and discussed rock formations of all things (and no, I can't remember all the various ones) spent time on the beach, had drinks at a golf club that overlooked the water (next to a graveyard too of course) and the countryside made me think of what I imagine Ireland to look like.  Green rolling hills and cliffs where the sheep are grazing and the water washing up against the rocks below.

Each visit has been completely different to the last, so yes, I'm looking forward to seeing my friend again as it's now been almost 3 yrs since we last caught up.  So I'm thinking today's pic should be one I've taken during one of my visits.  See you same time same place tomorrow!