Stuff I like

I expect this to be an ongoing theme. There will probably be Stuff I don't like too but lets start with the positives shall we? I like my ladies mahjong group. I was lucky enough to get introduced to these women while I was still living in the hotel when we first arrived. A company wife, Robbie, called and suggested I play and then was gracious enough to come pick me up and deliver me to Yvonne's doorstep. I also met Carolyn and Gaylene and Margaret that day. We've got Julie and Joan in the gang and hopefully Denise will come regularly if we didn't scare her off yesterday. A couple of women who played in the spring have already moved on with their husbands to their next assignments. Its the nature of the beast that people come and go though there is more volatility in this group as we're mostly expats. We call ourselves Beginners Mahjong since anyone is welcome to join regardless of skill level. There is a regular mahjong group too, but they keep score and from what I hear actually take their game play seriously. We do not. The game is fun (at least when the tiles are falling right) but I think for us it is a handy excuse to get together for lunch and a chat once a week. As I was leaving Carolyn's house yesterday afternoon I mentioned how much I enjoy the company of these women and we discussed why that is exactly. We're of a similar age, we're all (with the exception of Yvonne who works in real estate) trailing spouses for husbands in the oil and mining industry, our kids are mostly grown, and we're figuring out how best to cope with becoming 'a certain age'. But most importantly, nobody has anything to prove. These women have lived in exotic locales, traveled extensively, experienced glorious things, struggled with adjusting to moving and leaving family behind for years at a time, coped with raising children to be responsible adults, dealt with weird diseases, learned foreign languages, and scavenged back alley stalls in search of whatever "normal" cooking ingredient they used back home that they can't find in their new posting. It's the shared experience that makes it so fun and easy for all of us. We understand that when one of us tells a story about "that time I was in Timbuktu" it's not boasting, its just what life has been. We don't have to edit for each other. My friends are intelligent women. They've had professional careers of their own, kept things together under extremely challenging circumstances, dealt with being nomads, and coped with the weirdest and funniest day to day challenges you can imagine. They are grown ups and there is no one-upmanship, no gossip, and no back biting. It is a pleasure knowing them.