Tomorrow Meredith from Oh, The Thinks You Can Think and I will be interviewed by Carol Duncan for the local Newcastle ABC radio broadcast. As we have been trying to work out what we could possibly have to say that might be in any way interesting (aside from telling embarrassing stories about each other), it occurred to us that we have been friends for more than half our lifetime.

We met when we were 12, on the first day of high school. Twenty-something years later, we still get together at least once a week to catch up and often chat on the phone. Back in 2005 we even wrote a cookbook together called Keep the Table Laughing.

Because I’m a kind of nerdy, navel-gazy sort of person, I’ve been pondering why it is that our friendship has lasted so long. I’ve come up with the following list:

Why I Am Friends With Meredith

• She writes notes like “ass/shop/tennis” as a reminder to tell me something, then can’t remember what it means.
• She doesn’t make fun of me (to my face) when I get excited about performing very basic technical tasks (like working out how to sync my Outlook calendar with my iPod).
• She also obsesses about completing the word association web on iAssociate.
• She can be easily (and cheaply) bribed with a cup of coffee and the assurance that I don’t have any other friends as funny as she is.
• She knows when to schunkeln.
• Because in the course of a one hour conversation, we can cover such diverse topics as Alvin & the Chipmunks: the Squeak-el, mommy bloggers, Christian fundamentalism, post-impressionist art, the Australian political landscape, geeky iPod apps, whitegoods, German folk music, grocery prices and colouring your lady bits.
• She always buys me the perfect gift for my birthday. I still have my Famous Writer Magenetised Finger Puppets stuck to the fridge – Tolstoy, Dickens, Shakespeare and Woolf.
• She also thinks that it’s awesome that Floyd from the band in the Muppets was pink. Think about it.

What do you value most in your friends? I know all about the loyalty, compassion, encouragement, honesty stuff. What quirky things about your friends make you look forward to seeing them and spending time with them?