Dear Reader,
Here’s hoping you’re well and happy, and as eagerly looking forward to the weekend as we are. There’s something about the promise of a Monday off that turns us into giddy wrecks on the Friday of a Bank Holiday, and we’re some of the lucky few who love our jobs!
This time last week I was enjoying my first day off this year (I simply can’t tear myself away from the place – it’s that wonderful…), for a dear friend’s wedding. Not so long ago we shared a house, with two other friends. Four women in one house can be a recipe for disaster at times; the contents of four wardrobes, the hormones of four women and the difference of four opinions on how late it’s okay to be incredibly noisy… it leads to some awkward moments.
For the most part, though, it’s wonderful. When you get wrapped up in your daily schedule, work, home, partners, pets, it’s all too easy to let the big female friendships in your life take the back seat. You intend to call and catch up, and remind yourself at least once a day for a while, but soon a day becomes a week, a week becomes a month and you haven’t seen someone who was like a sister to you in half a year.
Weddings are an emotional time for everyone, and seeing one of my besties on her big day, saying her vows and hearing the love of her life promise to love her all of her days, it just brought it home to me how important it was to be there and be a part of it, and how lucky I felt to witness the whole thing.
The morning after the wedding, I got a call from another dear friend to say she and her husband were expecting a baby, the couple’s first. After the short, joyful conversation, I sat in the car and felt tears of happiness in my eyes for both women I adored on these momentous days in their lives. On Sunday, I shared a two-hour tea with a friend who had recently graduated from an intense two-year course she’s been studying hard for, and we toasted her achievements.
It’s long been said that friends are the family you choose for yourself, but they need love and effort from both parties to maintain the bond. For this Bank Holiday Weekend I’ll be heading back to Munster and essentially speed-dating with as many friends as I can meet, and I’d recommend the same as a sort of Chicken Soup for the Soul. No matter how busy life is, there should always be time for the people you love.
Of course those of you who visit these pages every day and talk to us here, and on our Facebook and Twitter, we regard as Her friends, and we love chatting with you every day. For the weekend, Amy and Sue will be here – drop by to visit them and say hello! The rest of us will be back on Tuesday after some R&R, so friends; we’ll talk to you then.
Have a great one,
Michelle xx
