A FRIEND from London has asked you to let her know by this afternoon if you are free for a drink in two-and-a-half months.

Hannah, not her real name,, who does something important like marketing, has also informed you that if you cannot do that, she could do late the next month or three months later, but warned that the diary was filling up.

She said: “This weekend is Sarah’s birthday, then I’ve got that mini-break to Lisbon, then we’re taking the cat in for its check-up, then it’s Emma’s birthday.

“Then I’ve got a team-building weekend in Dorset, then it’s Samantha’s wedding, then it’s other Sarah’s hen party.

“I could maybe squeeze you in on September 23, but we’d have to be done by half-seven because I’m going to the theatre with my friends who like going to the theatre.”

She promised that she would definitely not cancel on you this time, even though she had an important project deadline that week that would involve her working even harder than usual, not to mention Beth’s engagement drinks and Jemma’s housewarming.

She also asked if you could please check if you were free in October next year to see her get married to a man who does something important involving tax law.