First Dance Friday: The Lancashire Hotpots

Some weeks you get to Friday on your hands and knees.

It's tempting to be maudlin, and have a good old whinge on. Sometimes you need to to have a moan or you'd pop. But after you've got it off your chest, you should always try to think about the good bits.

My good bits are my friends.



I never thought I would have friends like I do now. Sometimes I look at them and I'm actually a bit awed by them. They're so clever, funny, talented, loyal and kind. Last weekend I camped in a field with six of these excellent people. On Sunday afternoon, when we were feeling a bit mucky and tired, some of us went to see the Lancashire Hotpots. A daft kind of band, the sort you only ever go to see at a festival. They've got songs about going to Ikea and drinking stout (not at the same time). As they were playing, the sun came out properly for the first time the whole weekend. And we all danced about in the swamp, kicking up the mud and flapping our arms like knobheads. And I looked round at them, and I saw everyone's troubles lift off their shoulders and evaporate. Every direction I looked in there were people grinning at me like their teeth were going to pop out of their faces.

It was the sort of moment that makes you feel glad to be alive.

Work, money, success, love.... all that's good stuff. The stuff that life is made of. But friendships are the glue that holds all  those other things together. Nurture your friendships, and they will be there when everything else falls through. Treasure them. They will hold you together.