The Long Goodbyes

Today is the first in a long list of last goodbyes I'll have to endure before my trip. My flatmate (until recently), colleague and mate Aoife is off to a 3-week jaunt in Brazil tomorrow and I'll be flying out to Tokyo the day she returns, so I won't see her after today until at least next July. I'm not sure if there will be tears or tantrums, but it will be weird to say goodbye in person for the last time. The thing about Aoife is that she keeps asking me what I know, and usually I'm the one asking, but I like it anyway. And she says 'so' at the end of every 4th sentence, as if she is verbalising her punctuation, which is baffling yet entertaining. But I'm glad she punctuates, this is very important, people. And she pretends to be a 'ditzy blonde' (and she'll definitely kill me when she realises I've written a blog about her) but she's got a massive cranium and is always learning and sharing the weird facts she picks up in her job as editorial assistant for the healthcare titles at the publisher I work for. I'll miss all of that. But I hope she diversifies from noodles for tea every night because a growing girl needs more.

We got into a nice double act habit being flatmates and colleagues (she sits right opposite me, facing me - in fact she is as I write looking wistfully at her computer in her usual way - because a boy just emailed her - I'll have to throw a pen at her or something); here is our double act:

9am - Aoife to Mel - "Yo".
Aoife to Mel "(grunt - no speaking before tea)"

9.07 - Aoife to Mel - "D'you know anythin' Mel"/"What d'you know?"
Mel to Aoife - "At this point in the morning, nothing/"Fuck all, ask me later when I've had tea"/"(insert some random financial or corporate fraud nugget that only interests me)"
Aoife to Mel - "Oh"
Mel to Aoife - "Tea? Builders or posh (peppermint)"

9.20 - Aoife to Mel - "Fribence (the boy) just emailed me again (insert laughably transparent, lame attempt from boy to intrigue Aoife enough that she will agree to go for a drink)"
Mel to Aoife - "Twat"
Aoife (inner thoughts) "But his lovely curly mane makes me want to have babies and wear Laura Ashley"
Mel (inner thought) "3 hours to lunch and counting"

9.25 An email arrives from Aoife conveying her inner thoughts across the one-metre space between us, always beginning in "yo yo yo" and ending in "ha ha ha ha ha"

11.45 - Aoife to Mel - "What you havin' for lunch?"
Mel to Aoife - "Duck wrap again"
Aoife to Mel - "D'you know anythin'?"
Mel to Aoife - "Not yet"
Aoife to Mel - "Did you know (insert random medical industry fact that polarises just how bleak the future of the human race is)?"
Mel to Aoife - "(Insert some theoretical explanation of economics that lie behind said fact - a cosy moment of geek unification follows)"
Aoife to Mel - "Tea?"

5.00 - Mel to Aoife/Aoife to Mel - "I'm off. See yiz back at the ranch."

A simple yet heart-warming summary of our schtick. I'll miss her so. Our flat in the ghetto was a reet laugh.

Then I have the goodbyes with Sonia, Rosie, Chris, and my baby sister to come... the worst ones....I'm not good with all this open emotion.

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