That's What Friends are For!

This week has been another hot and sultry week in the capital. Not a week for wearing suits and trying to look corporate. That’s what I’ve been doing. I long now for the start of August and three weeks of rehearsal clothes and spending the time in Battersea Park with five hundred members of the Youth Theatre. I am sure that when I am in the midst of it my thoughts might be different, but stay glued reader and find out.

I’ve found work difficult this year. Not the getting of it although there has been less of it about as my accounts which have just reached year end show, but the performing of it. The number of jobs I have had which I have actively enjoyed can be counted on the fingers of a Gary Neville gesture - (Impressed by the footballing reference there I hope).

“Doctors” was fun, but that’s as far as it goes really. Some of my corporate stuff usually brings me joy, but this year it’s consisted of underpaid jobs for the public sector where even the tea and biscuits are below par, and dull repetitive corporate training which has pushed no boundaries.

I still need challenge and that has what has been significantly absent this year. I feel jaded and stale, and if it weren't for my financial commitments I’d be very happy to run away and start a gift shop or something equally diverse.

The one thing that has been a constant and shines through this career fog is the support and love of ones friends and there is no greater pleasure than spending a working day with people you like. I had two days this week on what is a tiring and financially unrewarding job with the delightful Miss Ryan and Miss Richardson. That makes them sound like two Agatha Christie spinsters but it couldn’t be further from the truth. They have a great sense of fun but they also have the fabulous ability to love grumpy old me.

Although I wasn’t lucky in love until late in life, I have always been lucky with my friends. Fabulous, talented, fun to be with people who have been supportive and there for me and I hope in some small way I have always managed to return the favour. They have rushed to my aid in paying tax bills when I have been in trouble. They have turned out for endless birthday parties. They have donned their glad rags to trek to numerous theatres and cheer at the curtain call, and they have coped with my Mother!

It’s a great gift and it is one I much appreciate. As I get older I find it harder and harder keeping in touch with everyone and I do love all the new virtual interactions such as Facebook and Twitter so that I can try and be part of my friends life each day, but in all honesty sometimes i don’t see them as often as I should. There is no nicer prospect than a day when the only thing in the diary is lunch with a good mate. Miss Ellis is the lucky recipient of that award this week and it will be the highlight of my diary in the coming seven days.

It’s one of the reasons that Richard is so important to me. Not only as my partner but as my friend, my best friend who like all friends has to tolerate me on occasions, indulge me on others, but is always there to guide and support me. It’s a precious gift and I treasure it.

Yesterday we went to a friend’s sixtieth birthday party. It was a fabulous occasion at Mosimmans with a lovely five hour lunch tinged with sadness. Our friends partner recently lost her son at a tragically young age. they had decided that the best tribute to him would be to go ahead with the celebrations and raise a glass to him. His sister was there and several of his closest friends and we spent some of the lunch sharing a table with them. They were bound together by their friendship for the person who had been lost and it was a wonderful and touching thing to see.

We both felt honoured to be counted among the friends who had been invited to this lovely lunch and had a thoroughly satisfying afternoon.

So perhaps in my struggle to find challenges that excite me that’s what I should be looking to do. Look after my friends

After all, a friend is one of the nicest things you can have and one of the best things you can be.