No matter what happens, we'll always be friends.....unless I get rich first.
OK�so while Cosmic and I were being extremely productive in our respective jobs yesterday and discussing the merits of wine (empty calories�good) and chocolate (fat bum calories�.bad!) and jaffa cakes which are only semi-bad, Cos hit upon the idea of us writing an entry at the same time about the same thing. Trouble was we didn�t know what to write about�then she came up with it��how we met.
As some will know we are �wife and wife�, me being Mrs Alison, her being Mrs Clair (it was funny for us anyway trying to think of our marital names � what better than adopting each others first names!). But its been a pretty long road to marital bliss I can tell you.
They say that the mark of a true friend is when you don�t remember when it was that you became friends. Well, we met erm��6 years ago at the University of East London
I remember 3 main things along the path to us becoming friends but not when we actually became friends.
My first is of Business Studies class�Economics to be precise *yawn*. I remember becoming aware of Cos when she did a presentation on perfect competition and everyone thought she was great and she became known as �Miss Perfect Competition�. At the time she was in her short black hair and tartan trousers stage (hey, we were only 18!).
The second time I remember being aware of Cos was on the last night of term before Chrimbo break and being pissed as a fart in the Union Bar. I have an extremely hazy memory of us on the dance floor screaming �Ali� �Clair� at each other but after that�.nada�..my mind is a blank. I probably passed out - it had been a heavy day for drinking!
Finally, was my 19th birthday. We went to watch Corky and the Juice Pigs at the Union Bar (unfortunately no longer together, shame really, they did a fabulous song about using your grandmother as a skateboard) �.anyway, I digress�I went with the Beckster, Ali was there with the scouse one and we all sat together getting pissed and having a giggle.
From there on we progressed to the �sitting together in lectures�, going to comedy nights, 80�s nights, 70s nights, Friday nights and the occasional Saturday nights (all in the Union Bars!), Ginsters slices and Budweisers in the bar at lunchtime, running out of lectures for fear of death by boredom. Skittles (sugar rush!) and Bournville (releases the same chemicals as some class A drug apparently) and believe me the skittles and choccie were much needed in Politics lectures! (�eye eye� �remember that one Cos??!!)
We have seen many men come (fnar!) and go and suffered numerous embarrassing Thursdays and somewhere in that haze we became best friends. Ali, Bec and I were attached at the hips pretty much � where there was one, you would find the other two.
Once we left Uni things changed a bit. Cos was living back in sunny Kent so our nights of drunkenness and debauchery were usually restricted to Thursday night karaoke in the White Hart and by this stage Bec was happily wrapped up in her new relationship so Ali and I became �Double Trouble�.
At some stage during our 22nd year and 4th year of friendship we made that monumental decision to live together. We found our perfect flat and here we are�in November we become common law and celebrate our �cotton anniversary�. We have 2 wonderful kids � Bert and Ernie, and two cats- Claude and Babs.
How we have managed to stay friends for so long I don�t know, especially when you consider that we travel to and from work together, chat on e-mail during the day, and usually on the phone at least once. We socialise together, go to the gym together and Tesco shop together. In all the time we have lived together, other than my July freak-outs where I tell her I hate her, we�ve never really argued.
The good thing is we know each others moods and how to deal with them without causing each other any more aggro.
The down side is that we seem to have lost our conversational skills. She can ask me about the �thing� and whether I sorted it out and I know what she�s talking about without actually saying what the thing is, and we can sit at the kitchen table and discuss the best way of disposing of Minestrone Soup � too runny for the bin, too lumpy for the sink�..and no, we don�t have waste disposal!
So there you have it, the story of Mrs and Mrs Fish (Cos, I think they should be our marital names � I don�t know why we never thought of it before!!!). Now you know, how we met, and the things that I remember about us becoming friends. I wonder what Cos remembers....
PS. Cos, remember what the cookies said �There is the prospect of a thrilling time ahead for you�. Well actually, both of us coz we both had the same fortune, but hey, I�m excited�nah�really�I am. It�s just oozing from me!!