without good friends

where are we in this world? Here, Tony, Shikha and Geoff (with the mobile around neck) at the Smuggler's Inn on Astrolabe Bay, Madang. To be alone in the world like the ET with common interests with no-one is unbearable so I am lucky to have friends to share my dilemmas as I contemplate life after AVI.
How did George Eliot describe it? "Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of talking with a friend." - or something like it anyway.