The Last Time I had a Tear in My Eye (and wasn't drunk)

I had loads of titles running through my head for this post - "The Surprise of My Life", "A Long Lost Love", "ETL -12 hours" and other, more soppy ones which I can't remember now because my head hurts...

The last time I had a tear in my eye was last night at approximately 8pm.

I was meeting some friends in The Argyle in The Rocks in Sydney. Most of them were late. I grabbed a beer with my American flatmate and hung around for a bit. Another friend came along and told us that 'Mr Pink' couldn't get in. This didn't surprise me as It was a bit of a yuppie paradise. The guys were all dressed like they were straight out of American Psycho, and the girls looked a little suspiciously like high class hookers. And let face it - Mr Pink looks like a hobo!

We left the place and went around the corner to a little cafe with a little blues quartet playing in the corner. We sat down outside (they call it winter here?!) and got some menu's. All pretty normal to me!

Then something very much out of the ordinary happened. I looked to my right and saw an extremely familiar face. Oh my god I couldn't believe my eyes!

Lucy was standing there clear as day! Looking hot with her long blonde curly hair down around her shoulders, wearing that 'surprise!' look that I know so well and love so much.

She had only gone and beaten me at my own blooming game! She had completely lied to me about when she was going to come out here and had shown up over 2 weeks early. This may not seem like such a big thing, but when you have been apart for 8 months and every part of you is aching for that two weeks to pass and suddenly it has ended, and the wait is over. Its a pretty big moment.

My reaction was something like the following:

1. Complete disbelief. Apparently my jaw completely dropped and I looked completely confused when I first saw her. To be honest if I had walked past her in the street I think I would have thought it wasn't her and that I was imagining things, and that christ I really must miss her!
2. Gobsmacked phase. Where I couldn't really think of anything to say. I just gave the biggest hug that I could.
3. Happy phase. Just pure contentment.
4. the 'oh yeah!' phase. This is the phase when I realised why so many weird things had happened over the last few days. Like everyone ensuring that I hadn't got any plans for the weekend, my flatmate going out with my workmates (he never does that - I thought he was trying to score with one of my friends), like the fact that Lucy refused to email me her travel itinery. Like my neighbour calling me at about 7pm for no apparent reason! "hello", "hi what you up to tonight", "just going for a drink with some friends  - do you want to come?", "no, just wanted to see what you are up to! See you" "er... ok, see you later".

So apparently Lucy arranged this whole thing from an email I sent in which I copied in someone from work, lets call her "The Cyclist". The Cyclist, in conjunction with my  neighbour  had somehow orchestrated the whole thing, and she was a brilliant liar I have to say! Lucy had apparently been in bed in my flat all day after landing that morning.

So today I am the happiest I have been in a long time. I have Lucy by my side again. Not just for a holiday. But for good ... and I am not going to let her go again.