If you don't make new friends you may never have old friends

Chatting with an old acquaintance about matters of parenthood it became apparent his daughter was at school with my eldest son.

- with Mike Hill

When I later asked junior about her he claimed to have no idea who she was despite further investigation revealing they were in the same class.

It seems five years of morning roll call had passed him by without even registering her name.

Which seemed incredulous but was not the first time he claimed to have no knowledge of someone in his year.

It seems one year on from their GCSEs, the Class of 2024 was not as memorable as the Class of 1986.

Back in my day I knew every one of the 120 plus boys in my year and could probably name most of them now.