A chance encounter on Facebook chat last week with my great friend Johnny Candy, from St. Edward's School days. He is in Singapore; I am in Colombia: somehow, our daily schedule coincided and we were able to chat for half an hour or so on-line about love, life and - most importantly in the context of this blog - about the lives and news of all our mutual friends.
And what news! I count at least four marriages; a couple of children already in the world; a few more on their way; friends being pageboys and best men to other friends; and so on.
Speaking to Johnny, I felt quite sheepish and shocked: manifestly, and despite Facebook, email and all the rest, I have lost touch over recent years with the lives of many of my dear friends from this stage of my life. Of course, I have little doubt that my friendships with my contemporaries from school remain as strong as they always have been; and that a few boozy dinners out in London would make up for lost time.
But our talk did concentrate the mind and make me realise that, however much one tries, almost three years away, living in a very different and distant country like Colombia, does take its toll on one's immediacy and connectedness with the lives of others - particularly, in this case, one's longest-standing English friends.
So this is a small 'mea culpa' and an earnest promise to make amends in 2012 onwards.
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