missing pinky u

alas alack miss pinky u is leaving our shores. well, i am leaving before her, but when i get back she will be shopping for thermal underwear somewhere closer to antarctica than here. and it just hit me.

we love pinky u. not likey like but love.

pinky u was born with the loving gene - generous of spirit and soul and just a big bloody heart really. best thing about pinky u is she always makes you feel at home - and this, trust me, is a very rare thing indeed. everyone pulled into her circle feels cared for. i think that is simply the most amazing personal quality to have.

so i think something she taught me that i really needed to learn was to make my home where-ever i am rather than the ricebag tendency to "survive" a situation until one ends and another begins. and i am. trying anyway.

and the thing she taught me that was the most important was to live live live. not to save living like money in the bank to be used at a later date or for another occasion. but spend it, live it, breathe it, share it, give it away and don't expect anything back. all the time. all the time. and i learnt that from her by observation.

pinky started the next quarter century of her life last week and that entry was celebrated in some style with pinky u making from-scratch vegie pizzas with perfect dough (yes!) with lovely vegies from goroka brought down by miss low and an unstoppable punch(!!) which was quite effective (am sure i had an anaesthetized tongue there at one stage) and best of all left us without overhang the next morn - purely magic.

and it will be sad not to have the best SH-bumming curry-cooking vodka-slushy-making galpal around but i am so so happy for her as this chapter closes and the next begins. pinky is getting married and to someone who is so lovely its not truly believable ... so of all the y chromosome carrying humans in the world she someohow found The One that fits and ricebag knows that its going to be a very special life that they make together.

so png was blessed to have had pinkness in its life. and me too.

me toooooooooooooooooooooooo.

pinky u and i have been through some changes together this past 9 months since we met. like learning driving. like learning to leave excess behind at SH. like learning goroka show. like learning cairns. like learning when youre in a small place you can sometimes be compromised by people around you but that geography makes it hard to escape so you deal and then move on - quietly if you can - and leave the rest behind. like learning that a sunday afternoon in the rain at the coolest (and remotest) pub in moresby can be quite nice indeed ... and of course, for popping our tattoo virginity together.

and so, as i take your leave pinky u, i say thankyou. for giving me more than i gave you but thinking that we're even stevens anyway.