About two months ago, I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen in six years in Causeway Bay. We exchanged pleasantries and asked the usual ‘What are you doing now?’, exchanged phone numbers, and a few minutes later ended with ‘We should catch up. Ok, bye’.

But as we know, when we say ‘We should catch up’ it usually doesn’t happen. It’s because we no longer feature in each other’s lives and don’t think each other important enough to make the effort to fix a time and place to meet. Such people become mere acquaintances, as I am to them, and we would only ever meet again under serendipitous circumstances such as bumping into each other on the street, in a mall/shop, or in an event organised by a mutual friend.

Some people stay with you throughout life’s journey, while others accompany you only for part of the way. Such is life and how relationships fleet in and out.