Friends and Shopping

I was being interrupted by one of my women this morning via facebook informing me of her 'Bestie' girl friend being with her.  The 'Bestie' I thought i very much a female thing.  They have known one another since school, at her wedding her 'Bestie' was the bridesmaid, now 34 years later they still get together.  Today they were going shopping, something women were made for, and tomorrow they are being dined by another aged friend to celebrate their 60th birthdays, well one is 60 the other may be older.
This is a female thing the 'Bestie.'  Men make friends but do they keep a 'Bestie?'    
One of these not so young women thought that her husband made friends depending on his work hobby, church, association, and kept them as mates while they worked together.  They did not keep much in touch after they moved on.  I think there is something in this.
I had many friends when following the football, maybe 'friends' is too strong a word, and made several friends in various jobs (that's job as opposed to career which everyone has today.)  None kept in touch although occasionally we meet and chat, their families, work or life as it is moves us apart though we remain acceptable to one another when we do meet.  No Christmas cards, no phone calls, little contact otherwise appears to be the norm.  Having said that I am in touch with two or three who have been friends for around 40 years or more, but it is not quite the same.  Our close friends rarely number more than two or three while we have between a dozen or twenty friends we may be happy to meet, the rest are acquaintances.
Friends are useful, there is the 'Prisoners,' or 'Soldiers Friend,' on hand to aid sailors in court or soldiers attempting to get at their pensions, a Friend at the Court, at least in England (but at what cost?) and we always remember the proverb 'A Friend in need is a pest.'  

Friends can be useful as I say, 
Proverbs 27:6 'Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.'
I have 'benefited' from many of such wounds.
"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."  So claimed Ralph Waldo Emerson though he did not explain what problem the friend had saved him from.
And my favourite and most appropriate quote. 
Proverbs 17:17. "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." 

That sums up friendship but it is interesting how make and female react to it in differing ways.

  
After another week of suffering, I caught a cold on top of my ending cold and have not been out until today.  This morning I considered things were getting better and made a scurry up the road to fill the fridge.  Excellent I thought and had myself a good healthy lunch with green leaves and tomatoes, cheese and stuff, it all went down well.  
Now my insides hate me and my stomach will not let me eat anything else today.
When will it all end...?