Music Monday: Red Hot Chilli Peppers

I've had My Friends by the Chilli Peppers floating around in my head for weeks now and I thought I'd use it as an opportunity to introduce you to my friends Abby, Emma, Leanne & Ruth.

 Emma, Abby & Leanne playing mini-golf on our road trip to Norfolk in 2007

Me & Ruth at Latitude Festival in 2007 (I think!)

At a very basic level, what we have in common is that we are all teachers.  We met because of school and we all teach in secondary schools around Leicestershire.  I'd worked with and been friends with Leanne for a couple of years when we met Abby, Emma and Ruth in 2006.  A shared love of indie music and a series of road trips in Abby's (sadly now sold) camper van cemented our friendship.  The four of them aren't my 'best' friends, exactly (although whether that term has any relevance past the age of 16 is debatable), but they are the friends I see the most of and, when it comes down to it, they are the friends who I can rely on to be there for me when I need them.  Something gone wrong at home?  Exciting news?  Bad day and need a drink?  It would be one of them that I would call.  They are the people I would have missed terribly, had I moved to America.

What I enjoy about my friends is that, as well as spending time as a group, I have very distinct relationships with each of them, .  With Leanne, I go on day trips and to the theatre; I share a love of baking and Strictly Come Dancing with Emma; Ruth and I hit the vintage fairs and indie clubs of Leicester together, and Abby and I have a mutual obsession with Karima Francis and go to gigs and festivals.  Emma, Leanne and I all work together and so we tend to get involved in the minutiae of each other's lives.  Ruth and Abby I see less often, but can always rely on the fact that our discussions will pick up where we last left off, moaning about school (all of us) and talking about travelling (Ruth) or music (Abby).

Now, my friends will probably kill me for reproducing those photographs, but embarrassing pictures aside, the lyrics of My Friends are wonderfully appropriate for any friendship and always make me think of these particular four friends:

"'Cause I'll be on your side / You know I will"