Old Friends

Yesterday, dear readers, I went to Paris to see a couple of old friends: first up was David, whom I met at the Union Theatre 24 Hour Play and who later played Rob in the original Australian production of Rob and Roberta and has also apparently done other things since. In fact, he's travelling around Europe at the moment, with his friend also called David, whom I also met briefly in Melbourne. I asked them if their shared name ever caused confusion between them, realised that that was a ridiculous question and it turned out that it actually does because David 1 (Rob-David) likes to talk to himself and, better yet, address himself by name.
Anyway, they asked me for the 'Rory Tour' of Paris, to which I responded that I knew how to get to Notre Dame (it's near where Dani works), which they'd already seen, but we decided to go anyway to see the indoors and climb the tower. You're not allowed to take pictures of the inside (not that that stopped people), but the view from the top is just amazing:

Those other guys that she could dangle...

After we'd drunk our fill of the cityscape (and once the next group had ascended the incredibly narrow staircase) we returned to earth and ate lunch. The amazing thing is, even after eighteen months of radio silence, David 1 and I fell very quickly back into the gentle patter of regular friends. It was pretty much immediate- we met at Gare du Nord, he remarked upon my hair, and then it was just like the olden days. We discussed Marvel and theatre and Australia and uni and films and work and my mum (whose emails I was always relaying in my Melbourne days). I was absolutely delighted to find out that Laura and David 1 are still an item: I was there on day one of their relationship and was indeed the one who gave them their portmanteau couple name of 'Burger' (Barton+Worger). David told me all about a load of people I haven't heard from in years (my own fault, admittedly) and I loved it because apart from the note on my Degree, the stamp on my passport and my ponytail, my life in Australia doesn't really seem to intersect with my European life all that much. It was really nice to hear that it was still there, that my friends from those days still spoke (if only occasionally) and that I am, in some small way, remembered (mainly for my relationship to Vodka, it would transpire).

After lunch, we met up with Dani, who had been looking at unis at which to do postgrad stuff. It was lovely to introduce one of the friends from my Australia life to one of the few remaining friends from my time at Sixth Form: two people who have known me at two completely different times in my life. If only someone from Edinburgh had been there.
The Davids then departed to recouperate at their hostel and I finally got to see Dani's flat- it was exactly what I was expecting meaning lovely and very, very French. She showed me her chandelier and her cuckoo clock and then made the only decent cup of tea I have had in France.

Then, today, I skyped Husnain for seven hours, nineteen minutes and twelve seconds. This is a long time to Skype, in my opinion (maybe I'm weird). We hadn't really planned for it to last that long, after all we'd seen each other less than a month previous- it's just that, when we speak, Husnain and I follow so many rabbit holes and tangents that conversations inevitably become incredibly protracted- fascinating, eloquent, enjoyable- but very, very protracted. Husnain also said something pertinent to the events of this weekend: that old kernel of wisdom that we're different people depending on whom we're interacting with. I definitely think this is true, although obviously the differences that various audiences cause can obviously be extremely subtle (this, to an extent, is what my dissertation was about). Anyway, I was a different person in Australia than to Shrewsbury, who was also different to my identity in Scotland- so, seeing David again obviously brought back Aussie!Rory, but then Dani evoked Shropshire!Rory, and seeing the two of them together created some sort of weird hybrid of the two. I kind of wish I could experiment with bringing together the friends from the different stages of my life and seeing how they affected my manner, but I don't have the resources, patience or self-awareness- I'll just have to settle for the conclusions I drew from my dissertation. Namely, I hate the library and I want to quit.