Had a party to celebrate my only day of unemployment yesterday. It was all going okay, my ex was there, being a 'mate', and I was hanging out with an old friend mainly, thought I'd have to play the game, let her see what happens when we're just mates.

I'm sure it wasn't that conscious, I was a bit pissed to tell the truth, and I hadn't seen this friend for ages, so.. An interesting drama was played out, unbeknownst to us blokes between the three girls present, which ended up with an almighty bollocking, a couple of them leaving and the victorious one stayed and passed out as we settled in to GT4.

The thing is you see, these girls have this thing where they like to be surrounded by blokes. Whatever the reason, that's how it works and it took a long time for the two that left early to come to terms with each other being in the same group. I'm not sure they entirely trust each other still, but yesterday they were best of friends because there was a common enemy.

The third girl is the same as the other two. Loud when pissed, likes being the centre of attention, was there first. Eight years ago, we all lived in the same hall. She was together with a very good friend of mine for nearly four years. We had a very close friendship where I counselled her through all her relationship trauma and that stuff. I even had a girlfriend who was insanely jealous of her then. So I shoulda known better.

So I guess there was ownership problems, an epic psychological battle between the old and the new, the new not quite understanding that as blokes, we really don't give a shit about the mind games, we just want to hang out and get pissed and play board games. We didn't notice for a while, well I got a couple of evil stares and meaningful looks ,but I thought no, fuckit, if we are going to play the game of friendship, you are going to let me talk to whomever I want.

I guess I'll never really understand, but apparently you still aren't allowed to have close friends, old friends aren't allowed to be touchy and drunk. You have to be a mind reader. I'll just listen to music and shut out the world for a bit.

She wants to meet up and set ground rules. But I bet she won't tell me what they are.