A brief interlude..

To talk about the complex and baffling relationship we have with "friends".

As you know, in my new city a friend very kindly offered to put me up while I was here, he knew I had been offered the job in the middle east and knew it wouldn't be too long before I handed my notice in and said goodbye to Scandanavia for good. I was hugely grateful and looking forward to having some company and a few nights out on the town, and after 9 months of solitary confinement it was a welcome change.

I stayed with him for ten days, while he was in the UK doing some training and gave him a "rent" payment that I thought was fair for two months of sharing. I then had a fabulous FOUR weeks off back in the UK, during which the tea, croquet, polo and packers that I mentioned last time all made an appearance. I promise I will finish that tale soon! It was two days before I was due to fly back to Scandanavia, knee deep in packing boxes with fraying patience that I received a text from said friend.. "Im afraid I can't put you up for June, I need you out by the day after you fly back."

I was shocked to say the least. As box by box I became homeless in the UK, in one text I had become homeless worldwide. So, I have no money, no house, no belongingings and am writing this from a dubiously decorated hotel room in the middle of no where. My lonely living in the last city seems rather rosy from here. I had been so looking forward to having a partner in crime, someone to talk to, someone to celebrate my last month with that now the silence is deafening and the lack of contact more acute.

It has made me examine my friendships rather closely. I thought he was dependable, and having gone out of our way for his girlfriend previously, S and I were more than a little disappointed in his behaviour. So in a time when my Facebook friends add up to hundreds, can I even count on those I would place in my "inner circle"?

I have a very select few people I would class as close friends, and over the last few months I have been forced to be a little dubious about even those. What makes someone a friend instead of an acquaintance? Even though I am rubbish at keeping in touch with my friends, I would like to think that they would know that I would move heaven and earth if they needed me too. I have always stepped up when a friends has needed me, I've driven through the night to get to a sobbing friend, I've bought a plane ticket for a stranded one, I've stayed awake all night to watch over a drunk few, and most memorably, I've been at work, driven 4 hours to be at a funeral with a friend then driven 4 hours back to go to work and done the same again the next day to comfort them. To this day, I don't believe that person knows that I didn't have the days off. This is not me trying to get a pat on the back, I've forgotten birthdays, been lousy at remembering partners names or who the recent break up was with, some times I can't even tell you what my friends do for a living, but would I throw a friend out on the street in a strange country with two days notice? Hell no. The only time I've ever thrown anyone out was when they threw a glass at my head and even then I made sure they had somewhere else to go!

The last 10 months have certainly shown me what to expect when we move to the Middle East. One of my friends contacts me almost daily, one of them tries every fortnight or so and a handful send me a text or message on Facebook about as often as you should visit the dentist. So remind me again who my 200 odd "friends" are on Facebook?!