Your problems solved | 7 January 2016

Q. Although I have met most of the fellow occupants of my building at residents’ meetings, we don’t socialise. However our newest neighbour, a Canadian, has now emailed all the other women in the building offering to open up her own flat for a bonding evening of drinks and nibbles and where we would watch a movie together. She has asked each of us to name some dates in 2016 when we would be free so she can co-ordinate an evening which suits everyone. From what I have gleaned at the residents’ meetings, I don’t fancy the sort of ‘hen night’ atmosphere which she might be envisaging. I don’t want to drink and eat nibbles and watch the movie she mentions and I can already tell there is only one other woman in the block I could conceivably have anything in common with. I can’t pretend I am busy for the rest of my life but neither do I want to seem weird or unfriendly.