ASIAN CUISINE

14th september

It's been ages since I last heard from Angeline, a good friend who left New Zealand for love. Well, it's only been less than a month but to friends, that's a century. I kinda miss her right now so I'm inspired to write about another circle of friends who I call "Asian Cuisine".

Yvonne who is Malaysian; Opal who is Thai; Angeline who is half Japanese - half Samoan; and yours truly a Filipino. Unlike me, they've all practically grew up here - having studied, worked, found love (or still finding one) and given birth.

I met them back in 2002. This lot is probably the closest I can compare to the friends I left in Manila. Perhaps because of our asian connection but I think it's more to do with these girls being as carefree and funny when it's time to chill out but who also mean business when they need to. In the span of three years, we really didn't call each other or hang out a lot but when we did, it was always a blast. By that I mean, crazy and wacky and dangerously silly.

When Angeline announced her decision to live in Samoa (until further notice), it hit me real hard. She is one of very few girlfriends here in NZ I can really count on and with whom I can totally be myself without a care in the world. We've shared plenty of girl talks and have been each other's consultants for any aspect in our lives - may it be fashion, health & beauty, shopping, relationships.... okay well, those are the only things that really make up "girl talks".

All she had to do was fly to Samoa for a quick christmas holiday but when she came back, she couldn't pack and ship her stuff fast enough to be with THE ONE...

I thought to myself "I wish I'd hung out with her more often". But it was too late. She had fallen in love and had been swept away by her knight in shining armour, like, literally! My second thought was shock and disbelief that she was going to drop off everything... for love. Quickly followed by a third thought, "of course you are! You're in love! Yup, been there, done that! So off you go!"

Still, it wasn't easy counting the days to her departure. It was the first time it dawned on me how very very few friends I have here despite embracing NZ for nearly 6 years now. That thought was horrifying, almost to the point that I resented having gotten a little too attached to this person.

But what do you do? You snap out of it, grow up and move on. C'est la vie!