NORTHERN PLANNER

I had a conversation on the phone last night with an old friend. It doesn’t matter what it was about, but it reminded me that when you get older, friends become like family.

I don’t mean in the surrogate family sense – you know young people who have all moved away to different cities –  but real family. People you’ve grown to love and belong with – like it or not

At some point in your life you realise there’s some people you know better than anyone. You have a shared history that no one else will ever match. Others have come and gone along the way, but these are the people you’ve chosen to be your friends for life, consciously or not. They’re not perfect, they wind you up but you love them anyway. Just like your real family.

  It’s a wonderful, comforting thing, but like all relationships, it needs work. With marriage, kids, work and whatever else, it’s easy to neglect them, just like you sometimes forget to call Mum. But, apart from Mrs Hovells, I don’t laugh with anyone like I laugh with my lot, no one else ‘gets me’ and accepts my faults. I’m odd, always have been, so are they and that’s a real joy.