Opinion: Good friends are there when you need them

Good friends are hard to find. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

I had just started eating one of my favourite takeaway meals, namely butter chicken at the local Rotorua plaza, when my meal was interrupted by a bit of a health scare.

For some reason I was unable to swallow my food and when I tried to wash it down with my drink the situation went from bad to worse.

My food not going down was causing bad indigestion and giving me a fair bit of pain.

I knew I had to go to the rest room to sort out why my kai was not digesting, however as stupid as this seems, I did not want to leave the other 95 per cent of my newly purchased butter chicken on the table because I knew it would be taken away.

One thing I am not into is wasting perfectly good food, or hard earned money for that matter.

I quickly scanned the room for a familiar face that I could ask to look after my kai while I went to the restroom.

I saw nobody I knew. I sent a quick karakia to the boss to ask for help and immediately there was a tap on my shoulder.

Turning around I saw one of my mates Jon Jolley smiling his moonbeam smile at me and he said "kia ora bro", before asking me if I was okay.

I quickly told him I wasn't, asked him to watch my kai and disappeared to sort out my problem.

That was after he did a quick stroke test on me, asked if I needed an ambulance and told me he would come looking for me if I wasn't out in a few minutes.

Suffice to say, I got to eat the rest of my butter chicken with him and his wife, albeit at a slower pace of eating than I had done earlier.

That got me thinking about the importance of friends. As I reflected on that butter chicken situation I thought of the many other times in my life when I have needed a friend and how they have just turned up at the right place at the right time.

Friends like my buddy Debra Bell who told me I should be speaking internationally and introduced me to another friend Mike who took me to America to help me break through on the international scene.

My friend Chris who helped me publish my book, many friends through the years who seemed to phone me when I needed someone to talk to about stuff.

I thought of friends who knew me so well they used (and still use aye Nick) my coffee cards at cafes when I got to a freebie or just dropped into my home whenever they thought I needed them around.

Friends are important to the success and health of any person in any year.

As we start 2017 can I ask you to consider something? How are your friends? When were you last in contact with them? We all live busy lives but good friends are never too busy for good friends.

As the Maori proverb says "He kanohi kitea," a face seen often is a good thing.

In order to have good friends we also need to be a good friend.

Happy New Year to you and your friends from me and my friends.

* Ngahihi Bidois is a multi-award winning international leadership speaker, VIP host, author, leader, husband and father. See www.ngahibidois.com for more of his story.