Which do you have?

Almost four years here and I now have a fair few acquaintances but no real friends. Plenty of people to chat to on the street, neighbours to drink wine with, people at work to chat too but it's all on a superficial level.

Is it me? my age? People do seem to make more friends when younger, - or is it a Canada thing? I feel like Molly No Mates.

Acquaintances and work colleagues I drink with. First Nation relatives who drink ..... friends, not so much.

I'm still in the UK and guess I will be for a while yet. If it's any consolation there is only 1 person that I would consider a true friend and I've known him since I was a kid. Probably an age rather than location thing.

I think its much the same if you move 300 miles across england in your middle years, so I dont think its really fair to pin it on canada/ canadians, its just a side effect of not having those common experiences that forged friendships in the UK. Thats my 2c anyway.

I don't think it's you fled, but possibly an age thing.

I think as we get older then new people we meet are more likely to be in established friendships and set in their ways and, therefore, less open to the idea of new friends.

I have mainly acquaintances here, I have met one Canadian (in 2.5 yrs) I'd call a friend. The couple of other fiends I have aren't Canadian and have moved here fairly recently so we're sort of in the same boat.

To be fair I'm not a naturally happy, outgoing, friendly person (sometimes I just don't really like people that much) and haven't made much of an effort. Maybe if I was more friendly I'd have more friends.

Plenty of acquaintances but no friends

I don't think it's just Canada though - I moved from Yorkshire to Hampshire when I was in the UK and never made one single friend or acquaintance in the 3+ years I lived there.

I've made some pretty good friends here, about as many I want anyway. I've found the best way is to convert them into quasi-Brits, they're less annoying that way.

I don't think it's you.

We (Mrs_P and I) have a number of acquaintances but friends three maybe four. We like our own company and tend not to make friends easily.

Perhaps I am a bad example, but I just don't give a monkeys. I didn't back home either, there's really only one friend (proper friend) that I bother with. Some people I've known since school days have fallen by the wayside since I moved away, that was an eye opener.

I have met a selection of people here, some Canadians and some people from other places. Generally, I have more in common with the folk from other countries. They are more willing to get out and do things, and are easier to have a laugh with. I find it tiresome to have to explain every little thing to Canadian friends/acquiantences, when I have to do this so much less with other people ie: Australians.

Of the two Canadian 'friends' I acquired when I first arrived; one has turned out to be quite bigoted and racist, very insular. The other literally hibernates all winter and never wants to get out and do anything. Of course, not all Canadians are like this, these are just the ones that I found as 'friends'.

I have a few friends, and a number of acquaintances. The friends I picked up by dint being part of the Mrs's social circle when we moved back, buying a utility trailer off a bloke that became an ATV'ing buddy and my next door neighbour. The last bloke was an Aussie and has since moved back home. Bastard.

I think it's a time of life thing. In the UK I had a fairly large circle of friends dating back to the start of my working career. As we've all aged, produced offspring and moved to various parts of the country (if not world) those friendships have changed. Some are now more like acquaintances, some are still firm friends.

In this virtual world of BE I have people I would consider friends and others acquaintances. And a few I just think are dick heads.

I think it is more an age thing, my strong friendships were made in my 20s. One problem is that one of those friends lives here, 40 minutes away. We no longer seem to have the same depth of friendship. She's always busy with so many friends and when we do meet it's usually in a group.

We rarely have any callers at the house and any meet-ups are at my instigation and I'm weary of doing that.

I hear ya fled!

It's been a long journey and hard work to be honest, and I think I'm pretty easy going, friendly and open! Perhaps I'm just scary!

It came down to a conversation with my husband last month. If I died tomorrow, he'd be back off to the UK in a shot - he said he literally had no friends here. He still has two close friends in the UK and two close brothers. He has loads of acquaintances here, and actually, if the poop hit the fan, I think there are several that would step up and be good for him - perhaps he just doesn't feel that yet.

If the circumstances were reversed, well, I think I now have three good female friends that I could phone at 2am if I needed too. Two are Brits and one is Canadian if it makes any difference. Actually one was a complete brick recently with my kids and has been a star. It's only taken two years of knowing her to get to this stage though!

My three very good friends from the UK are still around, but contact has become less frequent as our lives evolve. However, I am confident I could still turn up at their house next week and start a conversation exactly where we'd left off.

It is partly an age thing, definitely.

I've mentioned this before, but while I lived in my own little world in the UK, surrounded by my familiar friends and acquaintances, I didn't really make the effort to include new people because I didn't need to. I wasn't rude or ignored them - I just didn't go out of my way to extend my circle because I didn't really need to. So I do try and remember this now I am on the receiving end

I'm not good at dividing friends, acquaintances and business associates.

Is Prikesh a friend? I've known him for donkey's years, he drinks in the Yard. If I'm there and I see him we chat, I once bought $20,000 worth of plastic novelties from him. We used to go out to dinner quite often when Indian restaurants were a novelty in Toronto and only he, Kenny the Chinese bartender and I would risk the food. I've lost his phone number but I know where he lives, does he count?

I'm in annual contact with siblings and a couple of people from high school, if I'm in London we might go for a beer. Friends? Acquaintances?

What about people from the internet, how much of them do you have see before they're "friends"?

All in all, I know a lot of people but I'm slack about keeping in touch and slack about categorising them.

A couple of good friends, but mostly acquaintances. Mostly I think it's an age thing and a fair amount of being the same way as I2C, what you see is what you get, if you don't like it... Well you know the rest.

I have also moved pass the whole thing of being the only one who makes the effort, it people can't be bothered to stay in touch, I strike them from the list.

Oh yes. This is how I feel about people back home since I moved away. I used to send emails, updates, tales of how it's all going and ask them how their stuff was all going. Not a life story or anything, just an email. If you can't even respond to an email...then be gone!

I should make more of an effort to meet people and to keep up with the people I do know. New Years resolution, perhaps.