of the handful of people who were genuinely excited for me to be back in australia, robert was definitely up there fighting for top place with my mum. i had met robert once or twice in my very early twenties, as we shared a mutual friend in one of my longest adult friends dan. i left adelaide when i was 21, when he was only 18, and that was the end of that. that is until the fates smashed us back together a few years ago on my very first month in the uk...
while i was waiting for rebekah to arrive from new zealand, i headed to ireland in the january to catch up with dan for his birthday. also there, was robert; five years older, and much more funnier than i'd remembered. we were an instant hit - a proper odd couple. both insomniacs by trade, we kept each other in fits of laughter into the wee hours - much to dan's annoyance (he'd start work at 6am...). both out of work, we hung out in ireland at dan's while he was in paris, and spent our time getting boozy, being hilarious, and sometimes getting out and seeing the site of cork.
back in london, we lived almost two hours away from each other. this didn't deter us! as each others only friend in the big smoke, we would pack a weekend bag, buy up big on the white diamond cider and crash at the other's house from friday to monday, watching jersey shore or snl or some other reality show attrocity and just generally have a ball. rob's girlfriend lived in germany, so he would visit her occasionally and leave me to fend for myself and... well, make more friends, really. eventually though, rob decided that his jig in london was up, and he left for home by way of a couple of months in germany with his pseudo family. this was about may time, and i was gutted. thankfully though, boyfriend's appearance was only a few weeks later, so i wasn't too sad for too long.
since that miserable may though, robert and i have kept in contact and carried on our late night hilarity across the timezones. so, when he found out that i was visiting adelaide the very same time he and his lovely girlfriend jess would be long weekending in the barossa valley, well, he went and booked us a room too, and called it my birthday present. what a guy! he and jess picked us up on the way through from his place in adelaide to the valley, and we spent the day doing what we do best; getting drunk and being hilarious (all under the guise of a wine tour?)!
winery after winery, with a brewery chucked in for boyfriend, we four chatted and laughed and drank the day away as if no time had passed and we were all old friends. i suppose it helps that we all had something in common, as jess had just come back from a month in europe too. that night in our adjoining rooms we put rob's ipad on loud and drank through every bottle of wine we'd bought at the cellar door, as well as their 'honeymoon suite' wine, and the couple of six-packs we'd picked up at the bottle-o earlier that day. it was a right laugh, and i was so happy to have been able to share my friend rob with boyfriend for a few hours.
the next day robert delivered us home for our next adventure with mum, and that was the last we saw of him. it was like a whirlwind 24 hours, but it was so so soooo good to be able to hang out like old times, not be stuck for conversation or worry that i'm coming off sounding like a dick with all my travel stories. it does get hard to reconnect with people after such a long time, but hanging out with rob and jess was effortless, and i thank them both for an amazing time in the barossa valley.
day five was my favourite day so far.
*have you entered my prairie charms giveaway?*
