pretty visitors

I can’t believe it: I just received a phonecall from one of my oldest friends from way back when finally announcing his visit to Berlin for October this year. Ever since I moved up here when? in 1994 he kept promising me to come and see me. Every single time, usually once a year, I went out of my way to have at least one stopover in Graz to meet him for a cup of coffee and a wee chat. This February, you might remember, he missed the appointment because he wasn’t going to set foot in the modern building I wanted to meet him in. And now this surprise. He’ll bring his wife along, too. She and I have never met properly. I only saw her once when I stayed overnight in their flat on the couch and just managed to get a glimpse of her on her way out to the early morning shift in the hospital. She is a nurse or at least that is what she used to be. As far as I could gather, she fell very ill maybe two years ago with a brain tumor or some such horrible thing and I do not know whether she recovered fully. But I shall learn soon, I hope. As for my friend: that’s a rather long story. We first met when I started to work in the photographic lab in 1986 where he was in charge of developing the Super8 films. Although he was a trained electrician he worked in the lab because there he started at 8:30 am and thus could see his two girls off to school. What with his wife either on night or early shifts, this was the only way to manage their family life until the girls were old enough to take care of themselves. Well, to cut that long story short: we fell in love with each other or rather: I fell in love with him, he just had another affair. After a while I realised I was just not getting what I wanted. So I looked for a real boyfriend, found one, let my friend approve of the new guy and this was it. But we still shared many interests and so, even after I didn’t have that boyfriend anymore and we didn’t work together any longer, we always stayed in touch and a close friendship developed. Even after I had met my husband – I had my husband approved by my friend as well, thank fuck I have grown out of that habit by now – he would come to see us regularely in our house in the south east of Styria until we decided to move to Berlin. Since then it was my turn to visit, whenever I was back home in Austria. But that shall change now. I’m so flabbergasted still, I’ll only believe it, when they actually do arrive.

Pretty visitors, Arctic Monkeys