Had a decent group of friends as a kid, a couple of whom I still call and speak to every now and then.
I moved from MK, only 20 minutes away though.
The main issue is, where as I got married and had kids and got a full time job, my friends never did the same.
One of them, whom I would count as my best friend since I was about 8 or 9, lives alone, quit his job and spends all time mining crypto currency. He actually does really well financially from what I can tell, but he doesnt like to leave his house, in case he misses an "air drop" or one of his coins has a spike, which means I only get to see him if I go round his house, and he lives half hour away from me and I have a wife, a full time job and two kids.
My other good friend of both mine and my best friend, decided to move to Ireland and work as a games dev for EA. He also spends most of his time gaming, lives alone, and sits there dropping acid, taking mushrooms and playing whatever the latest game is, so unless I am gaming with him, he doesnt seem to be interested.
I had one other good friend from that group, he decided to kill himself using intravenous drugs he stole from a Veterinary clinic he worked at.
Short answer, I decided to take the conventional route in life, marriage, kids, full time job, where as everyone else I grew up with decided to live alone, be a hermit, and never leaves their house and/or takes vast amount of narcotics.....which obviously isnt something I want around my kids.
I have a pretty decent friend from my work, a northerner, a Leeds fan, Ex Navy who is pretty cool who I hang with sometimes, but 99% of my time is taken up by the sprogs and the ball and chain
