Last year my closest friend moved back home to Ireland and sadly my other friend died suddenly. I miss them terribly. To try and make some new friends I looked at local groups I could join, including a few community groups that meet at our library. Unfortunately it didn’t work out well at all as I discovered that the same small group of women are involved in ALL the groups I went to and are a right bunch of cliquey miserable old bags. The majority of them are retired teachers, all comfortably off and conservative with a capital C who make no effort to welcome anyone new and actively discourage anyone from going that they don’t feel is up to their standards. One of them actually told me that if they don’t feel your face fits when you enquire about joining the local reading group they pretend it’s over subscribed when it isn’t. It really annoys me because I don’t think it’s actually fair that they’re using community facilities to run what are basically their own private little clubs. Why the hell they just don’t meet in their own homes is beyond me. I know there are lots of lovely retired teachers out there but in my village we’ve got a real nasty wasp’s nest full of condescending toe rags who bore you to death about their French holiday homes. It seems I’m fated to keep running into them at every turn. Any suggestions from you wise women out there on how to meet normal human beings without having to sell up and move ?