With editor's approval and love beyond words xox

Saturday 19th July, 2008

A few things happened on this day, but it was the last moment of a long day where it bumped into the next one that I most want to share.

We were in Novi Sad, in the north of Serbia, and 'we' is myself and this redhead goddess Imogen I have mentioned but not named in previous ramblings. We had just reunited for and survived the Exit festival in that same town, and had decided to succumb to being stuck there for the time being.

So cool things had happened - I'd wandered around town with a Serbian friend (aka man mountain) Dule, to find us an apartment... I'd been spoiled with homemade sarma (cabbage roll heaven) and raikia (even better!)... We'd laughed hysterically as a grown man on rollerblades had attempted to woo Imogen, headband and all... We'd been entertained and supervised and questioned and taught by these amazing Serbian men we found friendships with in this pastel coloured lil town.

Somehow at about 7am two "big anglo chicks" (as Imogen likes to refer to any white woman over 5'6" who isn't waif-like) end up in the one hostel bunk, drunk and giggly, talking utter sh!t like teenagers on a slumber party, generally indulging in each other's company. I'd been away more than two years, and apart from a brief visit home which kinda just made it more apparent, we had felt the lack of each other.

Imogen is frighteningly intelligent, madly articulate, unsettlingly intuitive... great qualities but also ones that bring her unstuck at times. See, when she gave me a bit of "Oh I told you I kissed him once, right?" about a man who was once my sun and my moon, I couldn't help feeling like she knew she was spitting it out at just the right time, accidentally on purpose, when it would hardly touch the sides.

Coz of course it didn't, and remembering this moment makes me smile like a fool - me laughing and smacking her repeatedly over the head with an empty water bottle saying "OF - COURSE - YOU - KNOW - YOU - DIDN'T - TELL - ME - THAT - BIATCH!"... her ducking her gorgeous red curls and spitting back "hey, it's not like you haven't done it to me, hey stop!!"... me "THAT'S - NOT - THE - POINT - mwaHAHAHAHA!"... laughing. Both screaming laughing.

God this woman makes me laugh, makes people laugh. So we laughed, I stopped belting her, we got up and went down the street for pizza slices in our jamies amongst 7am commuters to continue the banter, eventually slept, and I imagine we got up and did it all again the next day.

I miss her so much - she took the gypsy baton and stayed in Europe, and leaves but a pathetically slight trail of blog posts in her wake (clear dig xox)... but I imagine I'll find her somewhere again someday.

Safe journey Beautiful. Keep laughing xox