Qualitative Research Interview Transcript Analysis: Friendship Study

This assignment presents a transcript from a qualitative research interview focused on the topic of friendship. The interview explores the evolution of a close friendship over twelve years, beginning with the individuals meeting through work. The conversation delves into the activities the friends engaged in during their younger years, such as playing golf and going out frequently, and how these activities changed as they matured and took on more responsibilities, including marriage and career commitments. The interviewee discusses the different types of friendships they have, highlighting the unique bond with their best friend, which is described as akin to a brotherly relationship. The analysis includes the impact of life changes, such as illness and evolving priorities, on the friendship's dynamics and the shift towards more relaxed activities. The interview also touches on the importance of maintaining close relationships and the support and understanding that come with long-term friendships. The transcript offers valuable insights into the nuances of friendship and how it adapts over time.

TREVOR
INT: Ok, so erm, so you’ve got the majority of the information anyway, I mean
primarily the most important thing really is that erm obviously you can withdraw
at any time from the study, apart from when it goes on to the internet.
TRE: It’s too late then yeah.
INT: Yes.
TRE: You’re in trouble if you change your mind then [laughs].
INT: Exactly [laughs]. But up until that point, and we will sort of tell you when that
point’s gunna be.
TRE: It’s alright I just won’t watch my bit [laughs].
INT: Yeah, yeah, I don’t think I’m gunna watch mine [laughs]. Erm but yeah just to let
you know that you can withdraw at any point, and even during today if you don’t
feel comfortable with any of the questions obviously you can just say, that’s fine,
but hopefully there’s nothing too invasive, probing or anything so.
TRE: Ok, yeah.
INT: Do you want a drink of water or anything?
TRE: Er no I’m ok thank you.
INT: Are you alright? Erm and did Alasdair kind of tell you a bit about the study?
TRE: He told me it was er for education, for some kind of education thing or, about
teaching and helping teachers er understand.
INT: Yeah, yeah basically there’s not, there’s not that many teaching erm sort of
materials for looking at qualitative research and it’s quite undervalued in
undergraduate er teaching, you know in undergraduate modules to do with
psychology I think it’s becoming more and more popular, erm so that’s why
Alasdair set this up really just to have a good kind of teaching erm sort of material
you can use to teach people how to do qualitative research and how to do
interviewing, erm yeah different types of interviewing and stuff so, er yeah that’s
pretty much what it’s about, yeah and that’s why it’s gunna be made available
online so it can be used by everybody, erm and then there’s gunna be a book as
well, I don’t know if you’ve heard about that?
TRE: Erm he said something about a book or something, Alasdair’s like one of my er
lecturers so he mentions stuff, but Alasdair’s (inaudible) [laughs], so he mentions
something and you’re trying to …
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TREVOR
INT: Yeah you’re writing and you’re yeah trying to focus …
TRE: And then he goes off on a tangent and you’re like hang on what am I trying to pay
attention to.
INT: Yeah I mean really what the book’s about is er, it’s, it’s based on these interviews
erm and then each individual person’s gunna write a chapter about different
qualitative research methodologies, so Grounded Theory, erm Interpretative
Phenomenological Analysis, Discourse, erm and then each, sort of each individual
writes a chapter about different, so it’s basically a good kind of methodological
handbook on how to carry out different sorts of qualitative research, so it’s gunna
be used for that as well which is gunna be used for undergraduate research
methods as well, so that’s what it’s about really, yeah. Ok, so I need to close this
window cos I think it might be slightly noisy, it’s not too bad we’ve just got a
massive waste truck who’s stopped outside.
TRE: All good timing.
INT: Yeah, all good timing, I think it’s quite quiet at the moment there’s no students
around, has everyone gone home pretty much?
TRE: Erm we had our exams at the beginning of May so we’ve all finished now so …
INT: Right, so it’s about home time isn’t it, but you’re obviously from Liverpool?
TRE: Yeah [INT: yeah] I live near, I live by the ((LOCAL PLACE)) [INT: oh right, ok,
nice], so er it’s not too far for me to get to [INT: mm], I’m originally from here
so…
INT: Right so it’s not too far for you to travel?
TRE: No.
INT: So you don’t have to go home anywhere, cos you’re already here.
TRE: No, no. This is home [laughs], around the city centre so.
INT: Oh brilliant. Ok well like I said erm, yeah basically you know any questions or
any, any, anything you wanna kind of you know say, or if you want a break or
anything just tell me in the interview and we can stop the recording and
everything so that’s fine.
TRE: Ok.
INT: Does that sound alright?
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TREVOR
TRE: Yeah that’s great thank you.
INT: Ok, so as you know this project is about friendship, erm I want you to think about
one of your friends erm and can you tell me how you became friends with this
person.
TRE: Er I’ll use one that’s probably my er best friend I suppose, I was er, I was working
as a fitness instructor for the council and he was a, he was a customer, he used to
come in like every day, so we just er, this is about, this is about twelve years ago,
and then er we just got to know each other and like he came on like a few of the
staff nights out and then er we’re still friend now and that, although I’m not a
fitness instructor cos I got ill and you know, you know, but we just stayed friends,
so we’re still really good friends, although he lives in Runcorn now and I still live
in Liverpool, we always talk to each other on the phone and see each other like
once a month, twice a month for a night out or …
INT: Ok, and does he tend to go over to Liverpool or do you tend to go to Runcorn?
TRE: Er if we go for a night out he tends to come over here and he’ll stay in mine, but
because he lives like in the middle of nowhere we tend to go over and it’ll be like
house party or a barbeque so we’ll stay over there, but if we’re having a night out
he’ll come over here cos he prefers like Liverpool cos it’s where we always used
to go out when we were younger anyway.
INT: A bit more going on in Liverpool as well, yeah.
TRE: Yeah, yeah. I think it brings back all them memories from when we were young
and mad as well and had hair [laughs].
INT: So that’s quite a nice variation as well I guess isn’t it [TRE: yeah], so you’ve got
kind of your place over here where you can have a bit more of a party and then his
place in the middle of nowhere but you can still have like mates around.
TRE: Go round play on his Wii and stuff [INT: yeah] and barbeque, and yeah it’s nice,
it’s a good friendship, it’s good to have a friend you know that you can always
turn to, and I think you know if he picks up the phone like ‘come round’ you
know, I’ll be there and like it’s vice versa so I’m lucky in that sense to have you
know a best friend like Tom so, that’s why he springs to mind cos it’s more like a
brother relationship than a friendship I suppose, like you know when you get that
really close friend and you know what each other’s things and stuff, you know.
INT: And does that differ then from your other friendships that you’ve got?
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TREVOR
TRE: Er I’ve got, I’ve got lots of friends, but er I’d consider that I’ve got like one or
two best friends, Tom’s probably my best friend cos he’s kind of been my best
friend, I’m planning on getting married in 2010 so you know he’s like the best
man type of friend, and then there like other friends, you know I’ve got kind of
friends that are blokes, friends that are girls that are friends and you’ll talk to
them, but you know there’s like different, and then you have like friends where
you work as well don’t you and you know like the relationships in university and
work and just other friends but you, you know you have different types of friends,
do you understand what I’m saying?
INT: Yeah, different groups of friends.
TRE: Yeah different relationships, some that are more like family, and some are just
people that you go out and have a drink with and you know some like you’ll see
like on a work relationship, and, yeah.
INT: Yeah. So what kind of, so you’ve been friends with Tom for twelve years [TRE:
yeah], this friend, erm and what, what kind of things would you do together to
you know sort of pass the time, what kind of …?
TRE: Er play golf, er play pool, bowling [INT: mm], er like when we see each other,
like we used to play, when we were younger before we both, like he’s married
now, like I’m engaged, when we were living at home like and that we was er we
used to be out like every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and you know like we’d
play golf a couple of times a week, but once you grow up and you get other
commitments and I think things changed, I mean we still get the odd game of golf,
but like work commitments, like he’s working, he runs his own business now so I
mean your commitments are different so it’s hard to try and, you know you can’t
just decide ‘oh I’m gunna go and play golf a couple of time this week’ [INT:
yeah] and stuff so, but like the weekends and like you sort of spent that free time
with your partner cos you haven’t seen, cos they’re working and you’re out and
that, so you don’t really feel like saying ‘oh I’m just gunna leave you for four
hours and go and play golf’.
INT: Yeah, yeah you wanna spend time, time with your partner, yeah. So is that, so you
feel like the activities that you do together have changed since you’ve known each
other?
TRE: They have changed, we were lucky my partner and his partner they get on really
well, so I mean they can have like a girly night and we can go off like to the pub
or something or you know, so it works quite well so, but er I think we got older
we just like to have barbeques now, sitting around, drinking, rather than going out
dancing all night and …
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TREVOR
INT: That’s age for you that isn’t it?
TRE: You get older and you find it takes like three or four days to recover and it’s just
like ‘no, I don’t want a hangover!’
INT: Yeah, can’t cope with that, too much to do.
TRE: Especially if you’re in work the next day or something, you’re just like ‘oh’, you
just wanna die [INT: yeah], it’s alright when you’re before twenty one and you
know you just don’t get hung-over and then you know after twenty one each year
slowly gets worse I found, either that or I’m drinking more [laughs].
INT: So would you say that things, that the activities you do together as friends now
tend to be sort of more erm relaxed [TRE: yeah] than, than, than what you used to
do previously in terms of like playing golf …?
TRE: Definitely, it’s like when I was eighteen, nineteen we’d go out, just go out about
seven o’clock at night and we’d be out till like two, three o’clock in the morning,
and like I got ill so er, I’ve got M.E [INT: ok], so like I was a different person
before so I could go out and I could be like dancing from like eight o’clock at
night till three o’clock in the morning like a fool and whereas now you know if I
go out I prefer to go to a restaurant and sit there and talk and then you know go to
a club afterward and just spend a few hours there and, we like to go somewhere
where we can talk cos, I don’t know whether it’s an age thing but we didn’t talk
so much when we were younger, we’d just go out and we’d stand there and have a
drink and, but now, I don’t know if it’s because we don’t see each other as much,
but we like to go out and catch up and talk like old men with our pints [laughs]
and put the world to rights.
INT: So do you think it’s then, cos it sounds like you’re saying the activities that you
do together have changed so from going kind of clubbing [TRE: yeah] and
partying and obviously seeing each other a lot more probably then to now more
relaxing and talking, do you think that erm it was your illness that, that changed
those activities or do you think it’s just the age or the circumstance or almost the
location because you moved away from each other, do you, what, what, what do
you think had the biggest impact on …?
TRE: For me er I think things, getting ill, I lost my job, I got, I got fired from my job
[INT: ok] cos I worked for the council er and then I had to come to terms with
being, I was, I came fifth in Brittan’s Fittest Man just before I got ill so I went
from being fit to this, so I had to come to terms with my life again, but like I, you
know you lose a lot of friends when that happens you know the people that you
train with, but that’s why I say Tom’s been a really good friend because you know
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TREVOR
he, he respected what was going on and he was there to support me but he wasn’t
in my face [INT: yeah], so I think you know I just had to grow and change, but I
think age affects it [INT: yeah] as well, I think when you settle down and you’re
in a relationship [INT: yeah], and you’re you know like a, you know your partner
sort of becomes your best friend, like his wife will be his best friend and like
Stephanie’s like, I suppose you’d say my proper best friend now cos you’re there
together all the time, you talk and you share stuff and you know [INT: yeah]
although you know you talk to your friends there’s some things you wouldn’t say
that you’d share with a partner and stuff so.
INT: Yeah, ok. Erm so how, how about other friends, I mean do you do similar things
with other friends?
TRE: Er yeah I go out, it’s mainly er like go out for a meal or go for a drink round town
and that, but er Tom’s the person I will sit there until four o’clock in the morning
putting the world to rights [laughs], but when I go out like I tend to er still get up
and make a fool out of myself and dance and, but er like some friends like you
just see like on like er at university and stuff and you know you don’t really go
out for a drink with them and stuff [INT: mm] so there’s like, so that’s nice as
well, you just go for a coffee and stuff and that cos er you know it’s, it’s nice you
just you know you’re not gunna get a hangover or anything [laughs].
INT: [Laughs]. You’re safe in that knowledge with coffee aren’t you [TRE: yeah,
yeah]. So kind of slightly different things then you do with other friends [TRE:
yeah], yeah erm so you say you’ve got different groups of friends so you’ve got
university, people you’ve met at university [TRE: yeah], erm and then you’ve got
work colleagues [TRE: yeah], erm is there any, is there anyone else in that
particular, in the particular group of friends that you’re close to?
TRE: Er … no, I did have another best friend, but er, I’d known him for a long time, but
er he started taking drugs and he changed so, like he was meant to be my, like I
was too ill to be my friend’s best man so he was meant to be the best man and he
let him down a week before the wedding and everything then we tried to be, carry
on being friends with him, but he changed so much that er you know had to walk
away.
INT: Oh ok, so you, he started taking drugs before, before his wedding [TRE: yeah]
and then you couldn’t be his best man because of your illness [TRE: yeah, I was
too ill, yeah], and how did he react to that?
TRE: Er it was a horrible situation cos I ended up having to tell my friend that er my
other friend might not be his best man and I felt worse and I was like ‘look if you
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TREVOR
really need someone to do it I’ll do it’, and he was like ‘no you can’t do it you’re
too ill’, and it was just a nightmare.
INT: Yeah, and how did that make you feel, knowing that you couldn’t, couldn’t be
best man?
TRE: Er you feel crap and that cos especially when you know you’re close friends with
two people and you start to feel in the middle cos you know like you’ve got two
best friends and it’s like ‘hang on’ you know, what do you do?
INT: So, and then, so erm what, what, what do you feel that changed then after that
incident, well not being able to be best man, what, how do you feel that, that
changed your friendship?
TRE: Er I don’t, er I don’t know I mean, just er, you know er Jim he just er, it just kept
getting worse and worse and more selfish and selfish, saying nasty things about
my friend’s wife behind her back and like, and that, and then you know he was
going to my friend and saying stuff about me and he’s like trying to play us off
and like I just, I just like you know I’ve had enough, my friend carried on and he
was like ‘oh you’ve got to make an effort’, so I made the effort and each time it
was like you’re getting more and more let down, just like you know there’s no
point, you know cos you know when it starts affecting you personally and how
you feel you know cos people do change over time [INT: yeah], you know events
and life effects people so you know it’s understandable but you get to a certain
point where you have to think ‘hang on this is just not working’ [INT: mm], I
suppose it’s like you know when you’ve had a bad relationship in the past and
you, you know there comes a time when you say you know hands up you know
it’s not doing me any good you’ve got to, you’ve got to walk away.
INT: Yeah, how, when, when do you think you know when that point is would you
say?
TRE: Er when you start getting angry about it I’d say and you know, you know there’s
more bad things than positive things about them, about a relationship, and it’s just
like you know you, it’s just like hang on he’s really making me hate him and
you’re just like, and when you start feeling like that it’s like you know, it’s a bad
place to go so, I mean I think it’s better to walk away than keep getting hurt and
you know and getting into fights and arguments and stuff [INT: yeah] life’s too
short for that.
INT: So you kind of weigh up the kind of negatives …
TRE: Pro’s and con’s
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TREVOR
INT: …and positives in that, in that sense [TRE: yeah] when it becomes more
detrimental to you that’s when you think it’s time to, to walk away.
TRE: Yeah cos when it’s affecting your friends and your relationship with other people
as well, you know you’ve got to, I suppose it’s like the greater good, you’ve got to
take everything into consideration [INT: mm] and you know you have to make the
choice, sometimes choices in life aren’t easy, but I mean you know you have to
make them.
INT: Absolutely. So how, how did you go about then erm ending that friendship in that
sense?
TRE: Er ... I don’t know it was weird last year I was going, I was taking a friend and his
wife out for dinner cos they’d taken us out for dinner a few times cos you know
I’d become a student [INT: yeah] and I wasn’t working so it was like a thank you
for you know, you know helping us out and stuff so, and he was just like ‘oh I’m
coming along’ and I was like yeah, I said ‘this, this dinner you know is a thank
you and I’ll be going out another day for my birthday’, and he just started being
really abusive towards me so I was just like ‘oh, I’ll tell you what, forget it’ [INT:
right], it was like ‘don’t call me, we’ll call you’, and I was just like, the fact that,
that was it and you know, he, but I think he got the message that I’d just had
enough by the tone of my voice, but I haven’t bothered calling him and he hasn’t
called me [INT: ok], so I definitely think that friendship was er over, which is sad
cos I’ve known him since I was er sixteen in college you know what I mean so it
was a long, a long friendship.
INT: So you’ve known him for a long time.
TRE: And it did hurt but he’d changed so much into someone I didn’t recognise
anymore [INT: yeah], and that, that’s the problem.
INT: Yeah, yeah, and erm … and then you sort of mentioned that you know not, not
being able to be best man you felt had some impact on the relationship did this
coincide with him, him taking drugs as well?
TRE: I think that started, he went to Australia and that’s when our relationship really
changed, it was a few years ago, what 2003, erm like I started going out with er
Stephanie my partner, like he was always, like always ringing me up on a
Saturday ‘are you coming out?’ and I was like ‘oh I’m with Stephanie’ and you
know like when I wasn’t, when I was like eighteen and I was like ‘oh are you
coming out?’ and he’d be like ‘oh I can’t come out I’ve got no money’ and stuff
like that [INT: right], and then this sort of changed like when I, when I got into a
relationship he wanted to go out all the time, I was like ‘hang on’ you know
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TREVOR
[chuckles], you know and then he went to Australia and I think he started
dabbling with drugs and stuff over there with some of his friends [INT: ok] and he
came back and he, he was just, he was different, but you know I kept on trying
[INT: mm] and, cos you know you don’t, you don’t, good friends are good friends
and, but there’s only so much you can do.
INT: … You can take, yeah absolutely. So you feel that, that when you got into a
relationship that had an impact as well for him because he felt like he didn’t have
…
TRE: Yeah, yeah, he probably felt, he probably felt er like, I don’t know ‘Trev’s always
there you know, just give him a call and he’ll be over Saturday night’ and I was
like you know ‘hang on’ you know suddenly I wasn’t, I wasn’t there [INT: yeah],
you know and, but I was older then I was like twenty one and you know that’s the
time in life where you start settling down anyway, I was like and I don’t wanna go
out drinking until four or five o’clock in the morning [INT: yeah], and you know
I’ll come out for a few hours, but again I got ill so I mean everything was
changing for me anyway so [INT: yeah], so it was just er a bit complicated.
INT: Yeah, absolutely. Erm so, so, erm Tom the guy you were talking about at the
beginning, erm how long, how long can you imagine staying friends with Tom
for?
TRE: I think we’ll be friends forever me and Tom, I mean don’t get us wrong we’ve had
our, we’ve fallen out, and we’ve you know as mates do and family do, we’ve had
arguments, we’ve disagreed on stuff and that, but you know we’ve always both, I
suppose you could say it’s a, I don’t know whether it’s man enough or not, like
he’s, he’s like texted each other and said like ‘I’m sorry’ and I’ve gone like ‘yeah,
yeah we were a bit stupid’ then you know we’ve just sort of like put it behind us
[INT: made up] and carried on, and I suppose that’s the sign of a good friend, cos
you have like other friends like I said when I trained I used to have lots of training
friends that, who I trained with but once I wasn’t able to train, like a lot of my
friends stopped being friends, a lot of the fitness instructors that I was friends with
were just like the sort of, slowly and slowly like you’re contacting them and then
you know it, it’s getting longer and longer for them to contact you back [INT:
yeah] and it’s just like oh well you know they’re not really true friends, they’re
only friends from like that er that community sense of you know you’ve, once you
lose that thing that’s in common [INT: yeah] and that, that sort of breaks the tie I
suppose.
INT: I was just gunna ask you why, why, why do you think then that, that, what’s
different within those, within those friendships, so those friendships that work and
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TREVOR
then like you say someone like Tom who’s a very close friend who stuck by you
when you got ill erm what, what, what do you think is different within those,
those two sort of friendships that make Tom more long standing if you like?
TRE: With er Tom I was like his instructor and I helped him lose weight and you know
[INT: mm] I helped him when he was going through bad times so you know, and
he’s helped me and, whereas other friends and that you know they’re your friends
because you see them every day and you’re training and you’re doing stuff but
[INT: yeah] I think cos I went out side of the mould, I wasn’t there like six, seven
days of the week to train with them and you know sort of like oh I’ve, I’d left the
group kind of thing if you understand what …
INT: Yeah, so it was almost like you’ve got just that one thing in common with those
people whereas with somebody that you’re closer to you’ve got more things …
TRE: You can form those ties.
INT: Yeah.
TRE: Cos when you’re training with people you know and going out for a drink with
them it’s like a social thing but I suppose like the bond was the training and
working with these people, you know like when you go outside the mould and
you know you, you get like redeployed to another department it’s like ‘oh he’s not
with us any more’ and [INT: yeah], cos I went from being a fitness instructor, I
was off for a year and then I ended up coming back and working in the
management office with the council for the sport centres, so it was like, it was
like, it was one of them as well er ‘oh he’s not one of us any more, he‘s with the
managers’ type of thing [INT: right] and you know how people get, it’s like, it’s
like ‘oh he’s turned on us now’, you know ‘he’s friends with the managers and he
talks and he has a laugh and joke with them’, and then I got transferred to
education and then it was like ‘oh he’s er he’s nothing to do with sport any more
and …’
INT: Right yeah, it seems like the dark side or something [laughs].
TRE: Yeah, yeah cos I got redeployed to education so you were making new friends
[INT: yeah] and then I went back to sport and then like the friends that you made
in education it was like ‘you’ve gone back to sport, you’ve gone back to another
department’ and it’s just like ‘yeah, I’m still the same person’, but it’s how people
in their own minds, you know they form their own opinions and stuff [INT: yeah]
and you know like their own bonds, I suppose it’s like you know you’re part of a
team and ‘oh he’s not part of our team, he’s in an other, he’s gone …’ I suppose
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TREVOR
it’s like if you’re a footballer and you play for Everton and then you go to play for
Liverpool and all the fans are like you know [laughs].
INT: Yeah switching between, side to side.
TRE: Yeah and like ‘hang on you know where does his loyalty lie’ and [INT: yeah], but
when you’re sent to theses places you have no control over it you just, you’re just,
you’re just the sheep aren’t you, the pawn, you just go wherever they tell you to
do to try and keep your job [INT: yeah] and people, some people, I suppose you’d
say people are shallow in some senses and stuff, but you know it’s a learning
experience, you learn from it and you grow so.
INT: So did you form any lasting friendships from the times when you moved from er
like you say from the management side then to the education side, did you form
any friendships when you were changing jobs?
TRE: Er the managers I worked with and that they still email me now and see how I’m
doing cos er they didn’t want to sa[ck], what they called er incapacity, I was
incapable of doing my job as a fitness instructor so [INT: right] I got my contract
terminated, they didn’t want to do it but er, cos it was the council and they were
short of money, I’m, my job was er fifteen grand they could save so er [INT:
right] so it was sort of ‘bye, bye’ [INT: yeah] and that but er like I still get the odd
email ‘how you doing? How’s university?’ you know cos, cos I did, did form
friendships with them, I think it’s cos I was like you know a few, I was the same
age as like their sons and daughters and like you know cos I was ill and I did
make the effort to, to work and stuff [INT: mm], I think they sort of respected that
so they have stayed [INT: stayed in contact] in touch but I wouldn’t, wouldn’t call
them proper friends, but they’re just like you know associates that you know ‘how
are you? And how’s your wife and daughter’ and you know and it’s like ‘oh how
are you and Stephanie?’ in an email and you email back and if you saw them and
that you’d have a pint with them [INT: yeah], or you know if you saw them in the
street you’d stop and shake hands and talk and [INT: yeah] you know it’s there,
it’s a friendship but it’s not a best friend type of friendship.
INT: Yeah and it’s very different.
TRE: Yeah it’s a different relationship.
INT: Yeah, ok. Erm and then can you think about the friends that you had at school?
TRE: Oh we’re talking a long time ago now [laughs]?
INT: Can you tell me anything about the friends that you had at school?
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TREVOR
TRE: School er I had er quite a few friends in school, but I went to an all boys’ school
so er [INT: ok], I went to a rough all boys’ school, I went to ((SCHOOL))
Comprehensive School [INT: right], er quite rough, yeah so er, er I had lots of
friends, but er I suppose no one that I really wanted to stay in touch with cos there
was like er three classes of people you had the people that were really rough and
really naughty, you had the really intelligent ones that the teachers gave their
attention to and then there’s the quiet ones like me [INT: right], and yeah so er
and just er, I was dyslexic as well and I didn’t know at that time so I thought I was
thick so I was just always quiet and I just kept myself to myself but I did have
friends and stuff and that, but er school wasn’t one of my favourite places.
INT: So it wasn’t a great experience?
TRE: No.
INT: Yeah, erm and did you have the same group of friends throughout school, or did
you change?
TRE: Er it was funny I had friends in junior school and they went to senior school and
so we sort of all stayed friends all the way through school, but there was other
friends you know from other schools and other classes and you know we’d go out
to town and you know and stuff and you know go round to each other’s house and
stuff and yeah we were, I don’t suppose we were friends enough to er, you know
we all went off and did our own different things like some went off to A levels
and university and like I went, I went to college because er I didn’t do that well in
my GCSE’s because I was, I was dyslexic [INT: mm] and that so you know we
just all sort of went our own separate way after school.
INT: So did you stay in contact with any of your friends from school?
TRE: Er I talk to a few of them on Facebook [INT: right] and er MSN still and that er
you know we catch up and that you know ‘how you doing?’ like one lad moved
back to Wales, er one lad’s er in the police force now and you know so we do er,
we do stay in touch, but now er I wouldn’t say we’re friends like we used to be,
we were kids then and as a kid you don’t really know much about anything, you
think you do, but I mean it all changes when you grow up and you start work and
then.
INT: Yeah, absolutely, especially when you go in different directions I think as well
from school, so are you in, are you in close contact cos Facebook’s an interesting
one in terms of friendship I think because erm you can kind of be friends with
somebody but also kind of like say have that, that distance as well so you can
catch up …
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