Friendship

I make acquaintances very easily, years of sales, a very people focused job, a love of nattering very fortunately exceeded by my love of listening. And I'm pretty at peace with the idea that not everyone you meet will be with you for the whole journey, some are just with you for a ways and then their path might fork, some are most definitely just hitching a ride, some are but shooting stars. 

But then there's the friends you know are there for the ever, and I'm blessed to have a few of those too. I read once that you're doing well to have one deep true friend for every decade you've been alive. It seems too few, but I think I'm only just ahead of that curve, still I know I'm incredibly fortunate to have them in my life.

When Steve rang to say he'd got that most rare thing for a father of four - the weekend off - the answer was simply "Great" . It didn't matter one jot that we've a new puppy causing chaos and sleepless nights, that the house is a mess, that food would be a guess or the weather was vile. It was just Great.

Today we went to the climbing wall, my first time in nearly two years, and slowly, carefully, with a just a little swearing, an implicit trust and lots of laughter... I managed 15 routes. Steve did nearly as many, but he does have to lift more weight than me ;-) Personally it was a very special moment, another thing thought lost but regained. Steve knew that without saying, cos that's what friends do. He even bought me cake. 
Making the most of his free time we then noticed the sky had temporarily run out of rain, so we went for a paddle. I thought the wall would be my blip, but in a wonderful moment to share we encountered this female Roe Deer swimming across the lake to an island. I only had the phone in a waterproof case, but I'll remember it always for how excited Steve was. 
Good people make good times.