‘WLG – this is NYC Girl,’ Hot Danish proudly presented a tall blonde to me during a house party celebrating his friend’s birthday. NYC Girl was super bright, well travelled and fun. Within a few days we’d organised a girls’ evening at newly opened Art’Otel.
‘How’s my girl? Having fun?,’ HD texted halfway through the evening. HD seemed rather smug when I returned home tipsy. ‘Do I get a finder’s fee?,’ he wanted to know.

The same evening another friend, Hannah, was catching up with an old friend whom she’d drifted apart from since moving from London to the Dam. She was feeling nervous about it. ‘I have to discuss the change in our relationship – it’s the elephant in the room,’ she said the previous evening.
‘How did it go?’ I messaged Hannah afterwards.
‘The elephant has well and truly left the building,’ she replied.

Guys know how important girl friends are to their girlfriend: the girls become their support network, too. ‘I feel like I have two girlfriends,’ a former boyfriend once said to me, smiling, when Kate and I were inseparable before we both left our hometown. The Trustafarian was thankful Kate was close by when he phoned while I was crying hysterically because my cat had died. ‘I think she said her mum has died,’ I overheard him say as he swiftly passed the phone to Kate. I caught the note of panic rising in his voice, ‘I don’t know what to say.’

It’s why HD has been so keen for me to find new friends since my move to a new city: our girl friends may bring out he worst in us but when you’re feeling down HD is perhaps not the best person to turn to (‘It’s hard not to feel like a loser when you’re with a winner like me’; ‘I could offer €500 to anyone who can get you a job’; and ‘Women in their 30s are less fussy’ are just a few of his mangled jokes). Girl friends are probably the best people to help you keep calm and carry on.