Monday, January 03, 2005

"After 30, you can survive with just six friends of the right calibre and temperament. You need one to lead and one to follow, so that you don't have to make all the mistakes first but can also be a trendsetter for at least one of the lower echelons. You need one to support you unreservedly and one to criticise you with equal enthusiasm. This leaves you free to make your own choices but also gives you someone to blame when things go wrong. You need one who's always in - so that you have someone to ring in the evenings - and one who's always out, so that you always have someone to meet in town. Otherwise you'll be the one who's always in and having to talk to people who only ring you when they've got nothing better to do.

"Fun additions to the circle can be a) an utter slag who is as free with tales of his or her sexual misadventures as they are with their favours and can be guaranteed to enliven any gathering with a splendidly uninhibited demonstration of either talent, or b) a friend with whom you enjoy a certain frisson of Unresolved Sexual Tension. Do not let this become the year in which you resolve it. Yearning is a lost art and it behoves us all to nurture it in the few pockets of modern society where it still manages to cling on to life. Plus, the value of having someone around whom you know you could shag if you but lowered your eyelashes/pants in their direction is of incalculable benefit to the post-breakup spirit and should not be thrown lightly aside."

The whole of the article, by Lucy Mangan and published in The Guardian, can be found here.

Posted by Antz at 11:05 AM | Permalink | | |

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