Like many women of a certain age, I felt like I grew up with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. The Sex and the City ladies were a bit older than me and so watching them, I was guided into a lovely security that my own circle of friends would easily be able to stay close, meeting for dinner or drinks or even a posh breakfast at least once a week. Forever.
As the series and their lives progressed that never waivered. They welcomed their kids into the four-some's social engagements, but that never distracted from the conversation about relationships, sex (once sensitively renamed 'colouring') and other intimate details of their glamorous existences. They even strolled down streets together afterwards, in their posh shoes, to complete any unfinished conversations. Such, I assumed, would be the reality of my long standing friendships with MY girls in my thirties and forties.
Let's re-examine that...
Getting my group of girls together in the same place, at the same time, ideally without children, is like trying to reunite the actual cast and crew of Friends.
There are text messages spanning about two weeks as we first try to find a Saturday night when everyone is free. When we've moved three months through our diaries we typically declare it a ridiculous state of affairs and try for a Friday (less ideal due to the number of Saturday morning clubs that require an early morning chauffeur).
Recently, we moved through Saturdays, Fridays and Thursdays, Sunday lunches and Saturday brunches, before finally landing on a Wednesday for a curry, in six weeks time.
I mean, to coin a regularly used phrase, for fucks sake. A frigging Wednesday! But that, it seems, is the life of Unbalanced Women who may work late, who have Unbalanced Men who work late or who have children who have clubs and commitments that turn us into their P.A., chauffeur and late night chef.
Of course I see some friends one at a time for a quick brew or even one of those coveted posh breakfasts (they're actually my favourite). Even better than that is seeing friends who live far away, and you travel to get together for 24 hours or more. Now that is a full-on friendship binge.
In preparation for such an indulgent appointment I find myself making a mental agenda of things I need to ask them about. Who am I kidding? I sometimes write an actual agenda of topics. I never wear Carrie-style posh heels, but I do add a bit of lippy because it feels like a special 'date'.
Time always flies as I try to tick off my agenda as we tangent off to a million topics eventually returning to the original thread after musing "...why are we talking about fridges anyway?". And we're usually both clock-watching to make sure we're not getting dangerously close to missing our next allotted commitment, which we can of course still get to on time if the waiter brings the bill and the card machine RIGHT NOW.
But seeing my Girl Gang is important to me, and that's why I Binge Friend when we eventually meet. I want to drink in as much as I can and soak up their stories and the wonderful flow of easy conversation, jokey insults and safe judgement of others.
And the added beauty of Binge Friending is that, just like binge drinking, there are usually lots more messages the morning after, to thank everyone for a lovely evening and to comment on our favourite memories and funny stories. But there's never anyone saying 'never again'. Unless of course that Clare was in charge of pouring the wine!
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