I don’t know about you lot, but my friend’s number on Facebook seems to fluctuate wildly. It goes up and down for no apparent reason.

Obviously one of the reasons is people defriend (unfriend?) me, which is fine. The fact that I rarely know who it is means I am not that bothered. Occasionally it turns out to be someone who I thought I was cool with, but obviously not.

My blog seems to cause some umbrage. I wouldn’t mind if it was one about Palestine or something, but it is invariably the ones on artichokes or something that results in people non-friending me. Why people…WHY!!!!!???? Seriously, I don't really care. 

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I did my own Facebook cull. It was pretty strange. Going through the list of people and thinking, nope, no longer chums with you. It is a shame. Sometimes it is circumstance that causes these decisions. Friends of friends can be dumped, no one has problems with that. Oh, you used to go out with X, bye byeeeee. That is never an issue. But other ones are more tricky.

You may remember a blog I did a while back about losing real friends. Not facebook acquaintances, but people you cared about: http://saveandquit.co.uk/on-losing-friends

I dumped that friend on Facebook. I mean, I had tried for 2 years to find out what went wrong, and was met by a wall of silence. We are, most definitely, not friends any more. So I minus-friended them.

I clicked on the button, and the page reloaded, and nothing had changed. And it was great. I felt like I didn’t have to worry about this person anymore, or what they thought of me. Anyone who says they don’t care what others think of them, are lying in my opinion. Sure, you may not care what ‘certain’ people think of you, but you sure as hell care what other people think. The people you care about for instance. People you would class as friends etc.  

There is a tiny part of me that thinks if this anti-friend were to contact me again, I would like that. I am not someone who holds a grudge. Grudges are seriously negative chi which rot you from the inside. Why carry that around? I would be nice, and if they wanted to restart that friendship, I think I would be happy to do that.

REAL WORLD ALERT! That doesn’t happen. People drift apart, that is a natural consequence of centrifugal force. Our lives spin ever faster, and we are separated from the things we love. We drift apart, but that is natural and not something to be mourned. I think of my friends at primary school, My closest friends were a boy called Mark Gilbert and a boy called Mokoto. Mokoto went back to Japan when we were in class 3, and Mark left I think after class 5. My two best friends left, and so I have gotten used to losing friends. It is a sad thing, but just a natural process.

Facebook is great, because Mark and I are now, at the very least, Facebook chums. At least I can see what he is up to. That is a good thing. I doubt I will ever find Mokoto again, or if he even remembers me. But I like to think if I met him, it would be brilliant.

This evening I am going to see They Might Be Giants with two of my best friends, and my sister. After that, I am joining the rest of my closest friends (minus one or two) for some late night birthday karaoke.

And I can’t wait! Today is going to be a day spent with good friends, and it is going to be great.

- Anand