Freinds & Families

Would have been nice to start a new blog with a upbeat post, but ho hum obviously not to be.
Friends and Family's, like the saying goes you can choose your Friends but you can't choose your family.
At the moment I can't be doing with either (and you wonder why the blog is called grumble grumble grumbly). Since me and my partner handtied earlier on in the year we have lost a few Friends. I lost what I considered a good friend of mine on the morning of the handtying when I got a text saying he had been called into work! Sorry but if a minimum wage job that you constantly complain about is more important that being a part of the one special day in my life then...well your not the person I thought you were.
We lost a couple of friends down here too. People who are so selfish they don't like the fact than my partner wanted to settle down with me and start a new chapter in our lives, instead of going down the town center ever weekend and getting hammered and then copping off. Been there done that got the T-shirt worn the T-shirt till its full of holes and thrown it in the bin.
Still we don't need people like that, people that want to drag us down to their level.
Which brings me onto family.
My family i'm estranged from, I speak to my mother (after a 20 year period of not speaking to her) my brother I have had no contact with for almost 3 years-apparently i'm a uncle to a baby i've never seen and my Father I cut ties with after the disgusting way my stepmother treated us.
My partners parents, well I could write a book about the years of mental abuse that she suffered at the hands of her Mother (but that's something for another time), Her Father apparently likes me-which is rare, but he's a shrewd judge of character, same as her Brother in Law. And my partners Sister who after 18 months is just getting to know me. Which I prefer, I was once part of a family that lived in each others pockets...mmm nice they valued conformity with their 'Clan' and suspected individuality.

Me and my parther we have each other, we have our children and we have a few close freinds (can count them on the fingers of one hand). Its onwards and upwards for us though, as we have lost old freinds we have gained new ones, again since our Handtying we have forged freindships with people.
The thing is these new freindships are based on stronger foundations, We seem to be forming freindships with people who have had much harder lives the old adge "That which dosen't kill you makes you stronger" certanly applies here, But its more than that, I'm reminded of the Tarot card "The Hermit" The one who brings light into the darkness (usually at some personal cost).
I think our new freindships are forged like steel on a anvil of life and experiences. We have scared off the fair weather freinds with our fire and now are moving forwards holding new weapons