NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Alley Pascoe moves to a new city and goes on a friendship blind date
I heard of Annie long before I met her. She was a friend of a friend, and we were both short-listed for the Northern Territory Literary Awards last year. Annie was a lover of words, like me. She came from an interesting family, like me. And she lived in the NT, like me.
When I moved from Alice Springs to Darwin this year, I desperately wanted to put a face to Annie’s name. We had so much in common and because I’d heard so much about her I felt like I already knew her. I had visions of us meeting and becoming fast friends. I made a mental note to ask my friend for Annie’s number once I settled in, and then I promptly misplaced the mental note in the ever-growing to-do list of my mind.
As it usually does, life got in the way. I became bogged down in work deadlines, a busy dating schedule and finding my feet in a new city, so my friendship aspirations took a backseat. At least that’s the excuse I gave myself. In reality, I think I was
