Meeting Dr M again

Today I met “M” at the Lambton Quay pharmacy. I was actually looking for hair dye, but I looked up and there was “M”. I have not seen “M” since she left to live in Australia circa 2000 or 2001. To put it in Hebe context - the row of Hebe Graces that are now 6ft or so that reside at the back of my section were only in conception - as in cuttings.

So, I sort of did one of those double takes and gave a smile as if we might have met before, or maybe just practcing the happy smile so I get the happy vibe - as hard as it is somtimes. *M* did too, and then she said “Hebequeen”. Well, Ok, she did not say “Hebequeen”. She said “*” and I said “M”. Now the thing is I met “M” at what was one of the biggest nights ever (for me) one Melbourne cup night – which I think I have referred to previously, at my former former employer. I think the year was 1998 and I think she was a friend of Mr BB who is of course friends with everyone. It was random how we met. We met at the "Opera" bar when it was the "Opera" bar.

We never really had that much in common, except that night we both got quite drunk and ended up at the Irish pub in Courtnay Place with the Greek man who used to work in Facilities until about 3 or 4 in the morning – who I think she went home with. We then kept in touch intermitantly by email – she was sort of like a penpal before the advent of Facebook/Blogs etc. Although it turned out are both Gemini, with one or two days that seperate our birthdays and the one thread of commonality was that she had once dated someone with the same surname as me, who in the cicrle of life (gosh, thats so Lion King eh?!) would have been working for the same Govt dept I am now working for, but no longer is.

Since that time she lived in Australia, met a man there, had a baby, and finished her PhD in a specialised area of resource management. “M’s is one of those people in the world that I would describe as beautiful and charasmatic. Charming, engaging, intelligent and funny. She would walk into a crowded room and you would notice her. She wouldn't be "me, me, me". She's one of thsoe people that doesn't need to be becasue she has prescence. She’s hard to be negative with which is why I always enjoyed her company because instantly she just made me be positive. Weird but true. She asked me if I was still living in the Wairarapa - and of course she pronounced it how it should be, with the r's rolled correctly in the right place. Easy to answer yes, becasue I am. Then she asked me that harder question. The one about if I was writing. Because when we met I was writing a lot. I said “I’ve got a blog”. It counts but it doesn’t in terms of “writing”. Her silence acknowledged that.

She said I looked different. I said, “I’m older, I’ve grown my hair a bit, I think”. She said, “Aren’t we both, no, I think the colour is different”. I realise now as I write this its probably because I wear my glasses a lot more than I used to.

I gave her one of my current business cards – because if you’ve been following the plot I’ve been accumulating quite a few lately, and hello, I wouldn’t actually hand out a redundant card would I? Oh yeah, and I’m hoping to get a new card printed by the end of the year, but just don’t know yet what will be on it. She read out the one liner at the bottom of it: “Were helping New Zealand work better”. We laughed together. It sounded so funny reading that line out in a pharmacy. We laughed, and we didn't even get to the bit of the story that I don't actually like my job.

We both said we should do lunch. I hope we do. It would be random (again) to reignite our contact and really there would be no need to. But that's why I think it would be nice.