ChatterBank1 min ago
Making New Friends?
Further to my posts on being lonely and isolated.
I am going (on Thursday) to the local church Monthly Lunch Club.
A three course meal for £10.00.
Cooked by the owner of a really great pub in the village.I have had her food(in the pub) before,and it is excellent.
Someone is picking me up, and dropping me off.(as I don't drive)
Oddly enough it's not really the food that is the big deal I think, it's meeting(up to 30)other new people from the village,and hopefully I will get new friends,who can stop me feeling lonely,and isolated.
The Lunch Club is only once a month,but I am taking a notebook for names and addresses,so who knows where it may lead.
I have already met the organiser,who is very friendly,welcoming and knowledgeable,so I am looking forward to this.
A review will forthcoming after.
Answers
May I suggest you give them your name first and then they will probably give you their name automatically.
When you get to know them a bit better and feel you could be friends, offer them your telephone number, not address, and if they want you to have their number, they will give you theirs.
If you really want their address then you must be prepared to give them yours, and that is something I wouldn't do until I got to know them a lot better.
You could always ask if they are local or if they have travelled a long way to get there, but personally, I wouldn't want anyone to ask for my address unless I got to know them quite well.
May I just say well done to you for joining the lunch club and I hope you enjoy it.
Barsel,they will all be from the village(or very close to it),I think people here are more friendly and trusting than in towns?
All I need is a phone number,and a reassurance that we can meet up, and be friends,nothing too creepy in that?
I do know to take it slowly,and not be too pushy,difficult after spending 49 years with one other person.
It's very easy to jump in with both feet, and then perhaps a couple of months down the line decide that actually this 'good friend' isn't really your cup of tea, it's much more difficult to disentangle yourself then without causing offence.
Just take your time, you've made such a good start, be a bit cautious and let things happen naturally, which I'm sure they will.
Thats what I'd do, but obviously you must do what you feel is right for you. Good luck ☘️