Friendship

I've been going more and more stir crazy staying at dad's place waiting for the 'phone to ring.  Sometimes it feels like I'm in hiding here, reluctant to make contact with people for reasons I don't understand.  I have a list of people I feel I should 'phone, but somehow I never get around to it.  In need of some human interaction beyond Facetime with Sue on my Mac, occasional meals with my dad's friend Bernie and a chat with the checkout staff at Sainsburys, I finally gave my old friend Andrew a call on Friday and invited him over for the weekend.

Andrew and I first met thirty five years ago at a course for trainee local government accountants and had an instant rapport, both unable to take the process seriously and disappearing over the wall to the nearest pub at the first opportunity.  Later, we studied together for a while at East Ham Technical College, where he was my bridge partner during long pub lunchtimes and a bit later we both worked for Southwark Council.

In those days we would both have been described as people that "liked a drink".  Andrew still does.  We spent Saturday strolling around Lincoln and climbing up Steep Hill to the cathedral, talking about old times and fathers, as he has recently lost his too.  While looking round the cathedral shop a choir in the knave suddenly broke into "Zadok the Priest", sending a thrill down my spine and bringing up goosebumps on my arms.

Later we went to Lidls for supplies, including a bottle of ouzo, which Andrew casually knecked for the remainder of the weekend.  On Sunday I drove him back to his flat in Hinkley, taking a scenic route via Grantham, birthplace of his beloved Margaret Thatcher and Melton Mobray, where we had lunch.  As I drove we talked of our shared culture and experiences - Bob Dylan, the first time we met, my ex-wife Rosemary and the process of growing old and increasingly irrelevant.

As we sped through the Leicestershire countryside we discussed how we felt like different people to the ones we had been when we first met.  And yet enough of those much younger people remains for us to still feel a connection.  I guess that's what you call friendship.