“It has been such a tonic to see friends again after the lockdown – getting ready to actually go out again with a bunch of mates is just fantastic,” Sophie, 53, from St Albans, says. “I had forgotten how much it made the work day go faster and how great it is to have something to look forward to in the evening. Even deciding what to wear is fab!”

“I’ve been to some amazing places with groups of girlfriends because we haven’t been out for so long, so we don’t mind spending more money now. We’ve been to restaurants on the Thames with Tower Bridge as our backdrop, and a rooftop bar in the City where we could almost reach out and touch St Paul’s Cathedral!”

Meeting up in person has also given Sophie the chance to really check in with her friends. “With my girlfriends, we’ve caught up about some of the serious things – a couple of my friends have lost relatives to Covid and one has broken up with a partner – and these are things that it’s much better to talk about in the flesh rather than on Zoom or WhatsApp.

“We also all have teenagers, and so sharing stories about living with them in a pandemic has been fun and just really belly laughing with a group of girls again has been like therapy. I hadn’t thought I was too badly affected by the lockdowns, but my mood has really been lifted since I’ve been able to get out again.”

“It has been such a tonic”: 6 women describe their bittersweet post-lockdown reunions with their friends