Company In Good

A friend sent me a photo this morning from our night out. One of those long, fun and full of raucous laughter nights, where you look up and three hours have vanished, along with most of a bottle of wine. Possibly two. Look, nobody was counting. And there I was in it. Mouth wide open mid-cackle, clearly four sentences deep into a story nobody had asked for. Hair doing something structurally ambitious, possibly load-bearing. The exact opposite of demure, elegant, or any other word you'd put on...

Nobody warns you about this curious phase. When you’re in your twenties, your comfort zone resembles a lively share house. People flit in and out, someone’s perpetually sprawled on the couch, and if it ever feels too snug, you simply... move on. A new job, a fresh suburb, a circle of friends who also haven’t yet acquired a matching set of plates. Change can be an annoyance, but it’s hardly terrifying. It’s just another Tuesday. Then, as the years glide to forty, your comfort zone subtly...

Here's the thing nobody tells you about your late 30s, 40s and beyond: your weekends can go quiet, and you won't even notice it happening until you're sitting there on a Sunday afternoon realising you haven't had a proper conversation with anyone outside your household since Tuesday. Not a crisis. Not a red flag. Just... quiet. And if that sounds familiar, you are nowhere near as alone in it as it feels. We talk a lot about "finding your people" like it's some huge project. Like you need to...