15/365 - The beginning of a beautiful friendship
November- December 2009
Christmas season starts early in London, right after Halloween. In Romania it used to start on the first day of December, I am not sure now.
I saw that as an excessive marketing move. Since then I have turned that thought around, I embrace the habit now, it just gives us longer to enjoy it. It is what you make it to be, as long as you are smart with your money.
Harrods opened their Christmas season with a glamorous parade that I did not know about until after it happened. Carols were playing all throughout the store, over and over again ad nauseam and this is how I developed selective hearing, I just block out annoying music. This skill does not go well with my coaching profession.
I had given up my job at the restaurant, but I was still going regularly to visit. It was like an anchor for me now and it was good to see friendly faces. We would have chicken back then and Mr Salvatore was ordering it for us trough the restaurant - that saved us a lot of money!
It is a challenge to put my memories chronologically, but I did not forget my first pay day!
It had been three weeks of hard work and the store was flooded with tourists and clients. I remember that in between the running, the heat from the dishwasher, the coffee machine and all the electric stuff there, I was always sweating!
On the day I got my first payslip I was working with someone at the café, I opened it with my heart thumping in anticipation… slap! My rent was going to be £600 and my salary was £540, I did not think about the cut off date. I was so upset, I do not remember if I got teary, but I know I spoke to my colleague and told her what was on my mind. She did not say much, there was not too much to say really. We finished our things around there and she said she will go for her break. Ten minutes in, she comes back to tell me that she talked to her then partner and that she will loan me the money that I needed. She looked at me, she smiled and then she headed back to her break.
I barely knew her, I could not have dared to ask and she did not have to give. There are too many things to say about this friend of mine - the way she writes cards, the meal she cooks for you and leaves them in your fridge for when you come back from holiday, the tidiness, the hard work, the endless kindness that you feel like you can never catch up with and it is only matched by her then partner, “my brotha’”! We barely see each other, but it never matters for me. If you have not seen me in 30 years, I might look and speak differently, but time and distance do not make a difference for me. Hugs and kisses are never off the table!
I always tell the kids that they are rich, I do not think they understand me, they do not have to yet. I do not think any kind of material richness could ever fill someone’s heart like this. I have some exceptional friends in my life and even if we do not talk every day, they are in my heart. Writing all this I realised that I have one particular friend that is a bit just like that - all love, cards, food and kindness. But that is a story for another time…
I hope you had this sort of unexpected love in your life, that you have embraced it when it showed up and that it fills your heart with gratitude whenever you think about it!
You got this!
