Friendship that counts

"Be careful who you call your friends.

I'd rather have 4 quarters than 100 Pennies."

It's been another frantic week, mainly due to me helping my parents move house which is always stressful. I am aware that in order to complete demanding tasks like this, I often feel I neglect my friendships and especially the ones I treasure the most. Luckily the friends that really count to me seem to be ok on my diet of shameful neglect, which I am very grateful for.

I read an interesting article recently about the numbers of friends one can count on, I think its easy to miss count friends, see what you think. The Picture is of a bridal bouquet I helped my clever friend create recently for her friends daughters wedding. I think it looks beautiful and its testament to the saying 'many hands make light work' and the hand of friendship is the most special of all.

Number of friends 

The average number is about 150, says leading anthropologist Robin Dunbar.

It may sound like a lot, but think of your Christmas card list - 50 cards to 50 couples = 100 friends.

"It's the number of people that you know as persons and you know how they fit into your social world and they know how you fit into theirs. They are a group of people to which you have an obligation of friendship."

They usually consist of an inner circle of five "core" people and an additional layer of 10, he says. That makes 15 people - some will probably be family members - who are your central group and then outside that, there's another 35 in the next circle and another 100 on the outside. And that's one person's social world.

Now back to Facebook!