Good Friends Are Hard To Find But They Can Also Be Hard To Keep. Mairead Farrell Encourages Us All To Make An Extra Effort

Normally when I'm hungover I tend to be really cranky! But because I had such a great night all I can do is smile although I am still a little bit cranky. Here’s why…

I went ‘out out’ at the weekend. You know those nights that have been in the diary for months but to be honest when it finally came around there was a little part of me that didn't want to go.

It was sort of like ‘the gathering’ with ten of us in total. The texts were going back and forth with "what are you wearing?" being the most common.

Once I finished work I spruced myself up but again the thought of just heading home and crawling into bed went through my head and I flirted with the idea of cancelling. There is an awful tummy bug going around and I was thinking of getting a dose of it there and then.

But no, I did the decent thing and booked my taxi. When I got to the pub I realised that I hadn't seen some of the girls in almost a year! And why? Because I'm too busy? They're too busy? We’re all broke and can’t afford to go out? Because we have kids? These are all crap excuses.

The reason is simply because not one of us has made the effort. What with all the ways us modern folk can now be in touch with other – email/Facebook/ Twitter/free texts using What's App – it should be easy to organise meeting up, yet these get-togethers are few and far between.

Looking around the table at the girls I saw people who have known me really well for yonky doodles and although it's been a while since we were all together it was like we’d all seen each other only last week. Now that’s a sign of real friendship.

I really value my friends, I don't have lots of them but the ones I do have are genuine. So before we went our separate ways at the end of the night we put another date, December 20th, in our diaries.

And even though there is over a month left in 2012 I've already made my New Year’s resolution and it is to talk to my friends more, meet up often and just make that extra effort.

Mx