My friend Lawrence...

We met at lunch, after several months of eating alone at separate tables. The credit goes entirely to Lawrence, who finally wandered over and verbalized the silliness of the two of us eating alone in the same room. I happily accepted his offer to join him, and we've not looked back. It's the highlight of my week, for reasons far too numerous to mention.

We only see each other on weekdays, at lunch a few times each week if we happen to turn up at the same time, and we don’t even know each other’s last names - mostly because I keep waffling back and forth between my married and my maiden name, and his is Dutch and it’s hard to remember, plus I like our relationship the way it is.

He is 18 years older than me, or as he would say: I’m 18 years younger than him, and we laugh, rant, and pontificate beautifully together. Some of my favourite Lawrencisms are:

“Life as we know it would not exist without hypocrisy”

“Everything man does is for the service of his underlying needs; number one being getting laid”

Lawrence is a realist, through and through – a ‘tell it like it is’ kind of fellow. Wonderfully cynical at times, he is an open book among a myriad of people with hidden agendas. He never uses a computer; preferring his secretary instead, so he’ll never see this – and that makes me smile...