HM and I have been friends since 1999: HM is one of those old friends I can not only debrief various stuff with but also bare my soul to and expect to receive rationale, honest and non-judgemental feedback (and vice versa). We started off our angst-ridden PhD journey together (not realising that the other was equally angst) and have found out since then that nothing is too insignificant for us to dissect and discuss.
Finally catching up: I had chosen to make the long train journey involving 3 changes despite desperately wanting to stay and settle into everyday life here because HM and I hadn't seen each other since February 2010, mainly due to our conflicting schedules. And we had so much things to catch up on: our respective move to different continents, new additions to our family and changes we were experiencing in our professional lives.
Of course, I didn't expect to spend long minutes waiting for delayed trains or have the journey time expanded. Still, I suspect this would not have swayed me from making the journey. It was an investment I could afford and wanted to make. Sometimes, one just has to bite the bullet and do tedious things like hopping on and off economy class coaches to maintain special friendships don't you fink?