and yes, I bought a boomerang. the hunting kind that doesn't come back.

My memory is bad but I think maybe this year it's 30 years ago since I got myself a pen friend in Adelaide, Australia. We wrote letters back and forth for a few years when I was still a kid in Sweden. I remember looking at the map thinking we were really on opposite sides of the globe.

In 1996 I went to visit my friend and her husband and their cute kids. It was great. In addition to the kids and her parents and a brother and the other brother's wife (I think that was it) I also met a koala, some kangaroos and a class room full of first graders. And we saw a whale. It was in August and in the middle of the south Australian winter and the sea was gray and pretty.

A couple of days ago I had an email from her with new pictures of her cute kids. Only now they are cool teenagers who refuse to take off their sun glasses for the camera and only mom put her head in the stuffed crocodile's open mouth, true holiday photo style.

I am glad I have a far-away friend and I am glad she does silly things, and I still love her kids.