
11.What do you think of best friends of the opposite sex?
It depends on the individuals involved; it does works for some but has been notoriously difficult for me. I get on with women, but naturally get on with guys more - possibly because (if I am going to be stereotypical here) I am not into light entertainment shows or soaps and I don't mind blokey stuff, like watching American Chopper (well, before they started shouting and slinging the furniture at each other) and I am an avid watcher of the Grand Prix. I am more into documentries and am a bit nerdy etc. When I was a teenager, I was very good friends with two friends from both genders; the relationships have survived til this day and we stay in touch on a regular basis, even if they both live on entirely different continents than me. With the guy, it was more like Harry and Hermione - it could possibly have gone somewhere, but didn't and it would have been weird if it did.
It goes wrong when people start blurring boundaries, or making it plain that there is more to this - it becomes complicated. It happened to someone I know. She hadn't really thought about how things can be interpreted differently than she had intended it to be. She blamed herself, because she thought she would see it coming earlier than she did and if any impropriety was starting to become evident, she eould be able to nip it in the bud. By the time it became evident, it was difficult to disentangle and ultimately everything came to ahead. The friendship ended badly,causing heartache and problems on both sides.
Bottom line ::: if it works for you both, then that's great, but I think it is an exception to the rule.