Climbing with friends??

There shouldn't be a question in the title, there shouldn't be anything to write about, one climbs with one's friends, amongst other people, as simple as that.

Except, for me, it's not as simple as that, particularly not at the moment. At the moment, my climbing has tended, when it happens, to fall into the category of: getting away and exploring some adventurous trad. My friends tend to be in the follow categories:

1. Keen on sport climbing - well I'd love to do that but my elbow is injured, so I simply can't.

2. Keen on bouldering in general - well I'd love to do that too, particularly to different and burly places like North Wales, but my elbow is injured so I simply can't.

3. Not people I go outside much with but people I have fun hanging out indoors with - again, happy to train when it rains, but elbow injured cannot do.

4. Only available locally (or most keen on that anyway) - well, I can do a bit of this, and indeed I have done, mostly to spend time with them as friends rather than my actual own climbing, because I don't climb on grit outside winter and there's not that much that I actually want to do locally anyway.

Ummmm which leaves....well the odd oddball friend or two (hello Pylon King) whom I can hook up with when they escape family committments, and a few friends further afield whom I like climbing and exploring with but don't tend to hang out much with normally. I'm grateful to any friendly partner I can climb with, particularly further afield, but it's not quite the same as hanging out with day to day mates.

One could say, well, compromise your climbing just to hang out with them - well I can do that to a certain degree, I can do, and have done, easy stuff locally, and I've even had the occasional day just belaying or spotting, but the harder sport / bouldering I simply can't touch. One could also say, "just hang out", and yeah I do that. There's not a problem with friendship here, just this curious discrepancy that I have some close climbing friends that I don't really climb with....hmmmm. Time to convert them to Easy Trad™ you say?? I've tried, believe me I've tried...