Writing Workshop: Birthday Love

Welcome back to the Wednesday Writing Workshop link-up! At the bottom of this post you’ll find the widget to post the link to your workshop posts. But first? Well I guess it’s my turn! I’ve chose prompt #5- tell us about your best friend. This was a completely orchestrated move on my part as I’ve had this post planned for a while and it gives me a good excuse to tell you about somebody very special who just may have had a birthday at the weekend… It’s horribly indulgent but I don’t care.

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My dear lovely bestest friend,

So here’s the thing. I couldn’t afford to buy you a very expensive present this year (I was thinking a pink sequined laptop case) and don’t get to see you to give you your real (humbler) present till Thursday so I thought I would send you a virtual outpouring of my undying love and adoration, and put it up here for all the world to see. Because it’s about time people knew what a very special best buddy I really have. I hope that’s ok…. (I’m taking your silence for yes).

Did you know that we have been best friends for over 20 years? That’s  a long time. A LOT of memories. Here are just a few of my favourites…

We were about 8 or 9 I think and we were baking – and we somehow managed to spill an entire bottle of food colouring all over your mum’s very posh new tea towels. I have no idea where she was but we used every single cleaning ingredient in the cupboard under the sink to try and clean this tea towel. Including oven cleaner. How we are not dead left with some kind of permanent brain damage from the fumes of our concoction I will never know. Although on second thoughts… maybe that explains  lot! Actually we didn’t have much luck with cakes did we? Do you remember those ones that we hid behind your brand new bedroom curtains in preparation for our midnight feast? The ones that melted in the sun and stained them? Your mum went ballistic!!

Upper school at Burton Manor. Sitting with you in Mrs Weaver’s class drawing cartoons about Fagin and Beaky, our two imaginary characters of the time. I think they had been inspired by Oliver Twist where Fagin is in his den with his pet owl – it had cracked us up for some reason. We had all sorts of stupid catchphrases for them and would work them into every conversation in between squeals of laughter, drawing little pictures of them in our projects and school work. I seem to remember Mrs Weaver giving us very stern looks…

And Ed Banger!! Why on earth did we call Mr Kite that? God we were so naughty in his class weren’t we – he pretty much let us run wild! I will never, ever forget that ‘future room’ project where we had to build a model of a room filled with all the things we imagined would be invented the future. We built an entire house! And it had a very complicated working plumbing system as I remember involving straws. Well, I say working… because we left the tank in the ‘attic’ full and overnight it leaked everywhere and stained the carpet. Bless him, Ed Banger still gave us an A+ didn’t he?

Carting our cello’s home to your Grandma’s house where she made us tea with tinned carrots and pudding with custard which I thought were delicious and way better than the food my mum cooked (sorry mum!) I remember going back to her house after our very first solo trip into town on the bus without grown-ups and ecstatically showing her our shopping purchases. Two lumberjacks style checked shirts that were about ten billion sizes too big, and two small matching stuffed dogs with tartan hats. We weren’t exactly fashionistas were we? And I was always horribly envious of your shell suit which you got from Kay’s catalogue (the epitome of posh in my eyes) – mine was a cheapo one from Penkridge Market and no where near as classy.

I think we’ll fast forward through all the bad boyfriends shall we? Suffice it to say we shared some pretty tough experiences in those early teen years. And as always you were there for me, always at the end of the phone or a quick bike ride away. The years pass and I get to watch you turn from the slightly gangly girl I remember so well into the beautiful, stylish, slightly more serious woman that you’ve become. You go away to Uni and come back again – something I will be forever grateful for because it’s then our friendship began all over again – this time with us as ‘grown-ups’ with houses of our own and new husbands and long-term boyfriends who seemed to be taking forever to propose and whole new set of worries and dreams.

Now we get to some really good ones. Finding out after so many months of disappointment that there was a teeny bean in your tummy – I don’t think I had ever been so excited in my entire life. My wedding dress fittings, trying to find you a dress that will accommodate your growing baby bump and then crying when we found one because you looked so beautiful. Being so insanely grateful to see you on the morning of my wedding day because I was so nervous and all the little hand squeezes and smiles that kept me going and helped make it the most perfect wedding day a girl could ever wish for. I love the fact that naughty lion was my secret third bridesmaid that day – tucked away in your teeny tiny bump! No one would have guessed you were nearly 6 months pregnant!

And then all the baby stuff. Oh my word have we talked a lot of baby stuff over the last 3 years!!  Meeting your gorgeous monkey for the first time and wanting to scream because you instantly looked so thin and beautiful! And how, despite having done it all before me, you still made me feel, through every week of my pregnancy, like it was all a brand new experience and the most exciting thing to ever happen. ALWAYS being interested in every twinge and rumble and puke and complaint and worry. And telling me every time you saw me how lovely and not-fat and not-horribly pale from all the puking I looked.

Oh god – I could go on all night couldn’t I? How about me screaming and then hysterically sobbing in the office at work when you phoned to tell me about the surprise bean number 2? And every single second I’ve got to spend with you and the ratbag and the beanbag, watching them grow and develop attitudes to match our own!

I shall stop… because I could fill pages and pages.

And through all this? You my love. My beautiful, strong, patient, intelligent friend. Do you know people reading this, that not only does this woman put me to shame every time we meet, managing to look immaculate even if she’s had no sleep. Not ONLY has this woman had two babies in less than 18 months with horrendously difficult pregnancies both times, nursed sick husbands and battled insomnia… she’s also completed and honours degree, a masters and is now submitting PHD proposals. Oh and she bakes and her house is always clean (apart from the sofa). If she wasn’t so lovely we would hate her wouldn’t we?

You are my hero. My lemon bathroom cleaner sniffing, chocca mocca addict, wonderful best friend.

Happy Birthday.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

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So now it’s your turn! What prompt did you choose?

1. Tell us about the most exciting place you’ve ever been too. Try and use all of your senses in your description: what you can see, hear, taste, touch…?
- Suggested by the very well travelled Victoria at It’s a Small World After All

2. Write a recipe for something abstract - i.e. a recipe for a good/bad day, recipe for a perfect Halloween, recipe for a happy mummy/daddy etc.
- Inspired by English Mum’s son’s… umm… unusual recipe for a witches brew this week! Oh, and by one I did ages ago…

3. Write an ‘article’ (and I use that term loosely) about a recent news item or something that you’ve made up, deliberately making it as sensationalist and ridiculus as you can.
- Inspired by the delightful Jan Moir and the Daily Mail in general (link not added – no need to give them more exposure…)

4. What did you want to be when you grew up? Or are you still deciding?!
- Inspired by Maternal Tales from the South Coast’s beautiful message from her daughter.

5. Tell us about your best friend. You can interpret this any way you like – doesn’t have to be a person!
- Inspired by me!

Leave your name and the URL to your post in the MckLinky below (the URL should be to your post not just to your blog) andleave me a comment to let me know you’ve taken part. If you have the time it would be great if you could try and read and comment on at least two other entries. And be kind! It’s supposed to be a bit of fun – we’re not looking for the next Booker Prize winner here!

If you haven’t had chance to respond yet, then you’ve still got today! Or just wait till next week, when there’ll be five brand new prompts to get you thinking.

This Writing Workshop is brought to you in association with Mama Kat’s Losin’ It – who’s lovely author came up with the concept and runs her own workshop over in the U.S.

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