Keep in Better Contact With the Friends I Have and Make New Friends

I wrote recently to a friend of mine I have not seen for 15 years and she wrote back. I texted friends from a place I lived over 10 years ago and they got in touch. I phone, I text, I email, I write and I do facebook and myspace.

Better than that I am often the one organising drinking sessions/girlie nights in/catch ups/coffees/picnics/meals etc.

I really am pretty good at staying in touch with friends if I must say so myself.

Also I’m not bad at making new friends – some will come and go and others will stay for the duration.

When I was was young my Dad was in the Forces and we moved about a lot. As a result I was pretty good at writing letters and had lots of penpals. The longest running ‘Buz’ I have been writing to for over 16 years. In recent times it has been just too easy to text or email friends instead of picking up a good ole fashioned pen and paper.

Well last week I did just that and wrote a handwritten letter to Buz – then on Tuesday I got a letter in return! Nothing like a handwritten letter in the post – such a rarity nowadays!

I not too bad at this. In fact some would say I’m pretty good at it as I am in touch with childhood friends from over 20 years ago and I often make new friends too.

However, I feel bad when I know I want to do something and don’t get round to it for ages. I have been meaning to do the following for months, if not years:

• Phone G
• Visit G when possible
• Visit T
• Write to B
• Email K
• Sort a get together for T, M and girls

...it suddenly occurred to me that I really should just pick up the phone and ring some of my oldest friends, or write, or get in touch somehow. I used to be so good at keeping in touch but the busier life gets, the more I put it off.

Here’s my plan:

Write to C, H and C, my primary school friends.
Ring G, my best friend throughout secondary school.
Write to K, someone who had a huge impact on my life.
Ring T, one of my best blokey mates.
Arrange a reunion for S, K, O, L and S, my college gang.

...with the addition of an ‘honourary’ girl, my friend’s husband who managed to get locked out of his house! We shared some great food and lots of laughs. Whoever designed mobile phones with the ability to record audio on them should be taking the blame for me laughing so loudly I nearly lost my voice!

I had a brilliant night on Friday as one of my best friends hosted a get together round at her house. It was great to catch up with all my closest girlie mates and share all the last gossip and giggles.

We drank a hidous amount of alcohol and talked non-stop for hours. We laughed so much and were so loud we probably kept the whole street up!

I did take my camera with the intention of taking some piccies but I was so absorbed by my friends I completely forgot! Oh well – we are hoping to go out next week so maybe then!

I have a been slack lately with maintaining my friendships – I have just been so busy. However, I made tons of plans over the next months or so to catch up with the majority of my close friends. I really want to get around to writing to some old friends too.

I have found time to make a new friend though. I kind of cheated as she is a new colleague but after spending quite a bit of time working alone together we discovered we have a huge amount of shared experiences and interests. It’s good to have another friend in the office.

Despite having been up since 6am and knowing I was getting up at 6am the next day I dragged myself out to meet some friends with my hubby on Friday night.

I am so glad I did – it was great to see my bessie mate looking radiantly happy and I had a good ole giggle with our married mates too. Shared some embarrasing stories, waffled drunkenly about ‘my 43 things’ and made some fun plans to look forward to!

All round worth the exhaustion and losing my voice for!

Managed to squeeze a couple of hours with some girlie mates into my crazy weekend. Glad I did – it was good to catch up with them all. We’ve got our diaries together to try and arrange an evening where we can gossip over a few drinks – hopefully we will manage it within the next couple of months!

Last night I went out with a group of friends that I met at postnatal class after Little Jimmers was born. We used to meet up everyweek with our children and then we progresses to regular ‘Mummies only’ nights. They are brilliant fun and it’s good to spend time with people all going through the ‘terrible twos’ at the same time!