Interesting there are so many of us from Glasgow when we are supposed to be a friendly bunch!
I do have friends but they mostly live at a distance 50+ miles away, mostly people I was at university with and I only see one of them fairly regularly every few months or so, a lot less than in the past but she now has children and doesn't have the same free time. Another friendship that was more local seemed to fizzle out during covid. They have a lot on their plate with various family responsibilities and seem to prefer to socialise with people who live very close by them and the last few attempts to meet up have been cancelled by them last minute with no attempt to rearrange so I've let it go although if they did get back in touch I'd be open to reconnecting. I do hate the thought of being someone hanging on when the other person if fed up with you so I worry I don't do enough to stay in touch.
I am not really lonely as such as I have my husband and wider family (no kids) and to be honest I enjoy my own company and am always busy with various things, I even prefer to do a lot of things alone and my hobbies are kind of solitary. I don't drink and I find in my age group (40's), in this area that is a big barrier to being accepted because most people seem to be looking for drinking buddies and alcohol is often the focus for gatherings, fair enough but that's not for me. I'm more of a tea and cake woman. I also probably wouldn't just want a friend for the sake of it so it would need to be a real connection and some common ground. I also worry about getting involved with someone who wants too much of me and my time as I say I do like to be alone a lot and I have in the past ended up friends with women who seem to want to use me as an emotional dumping ground and while I would always want to support a friend it can't always be tales of misery and woe and getting upset with you if you aren't always available to listen to them vent.
I have two sister in laws who are both nice but we don't have a ton in common and again they both like a big night out with lots of drinking. One is quite self focused and will talk to me for hours but never ask me a think about myself. The other can be good company but is moody and you never really know which version of her you will get from one day to the next, she is also quite competitive and I can't be doing with all that. However we do do all broadly get on.
I sometimes feel that in Glasgow its kind of cliquey depending on the area you are from and that if you want to stay part of a social group you need to ensure you live quite close to them i.e. the west end, the south side, Denniston. That can be difficult as those area's are very expensive. Glasgow is expensive in general and even going out to meet up is costly and the city centre is kind of grim at the moment. I am sure that is also part of it, its so expensive to go out into town, to get some food, do something like a concert, parking or public transport (Glasgow's public transport is pretty bad) that I do think people tend to stick to their local area more.
Ah I don't know, but its sad that so many people do feel alone but its really quite common these days I think.