On this day I met my friend of many years, a friendship forged in a corridor with a shared kettle – student halls were pretty basic in 1979. Today is her birthday and in the damp drizzle of Edinburgh’s August we pick up where we left off – as good friends do.

Conversations criss-cross between the years or decades, a snatched memory here, some new news there.

Life’s too short we both agree as we contemplate the years ahead, free of work, pledging to our future selves that we will pick up those lost pastimes.

Life’s too short but friendships endure.

Margaret Robertson