There’s a time when you expect large numbers of your social groups disappear in droves, whenever you finish a course of study or change jobs for example, but more and more I’ve been getting the feeling that a disproportionately large number of my friends are hot-footing it off around the world – or have plans to.

I guess it says something about how ambitious and creative the majority of them are, how hungry for new experiences and unafraid to chase after them they seem to be. And to be honest I have some of these plans myself, although only one that is really likely to come to fruition and even that one is only a dream that I have piggy-backed on to.

It makes me feel a little bad when I think of how few and far between my urges to travel are. It might be true that I love the place I live with plenty of good reason – Edinburgh is a beautiful place after all – but everyone knows familiarity breeds contempt and stagnation. Should I be following my adventurous friends? Should I be taking their actions as a working example rather than another reason for me to pout and moan about them making themselves inaccessible for some of the pleasures of friendship?

Travel broadens the mind, so I often think I should do it even if only to add breadth to stories and imagined worlds, but conversely I wonder whether it’s exactly this frequent taxing of the imagination – whether when reading or writing – that makes the need to physically change my surroundings less of a prerogative.