英语翻译a couple of .keep in touch with .come up .neighbourhood

Keeping in touch with a couple of friends is not an easy task. For me, the situation is so. I have left the old neighborhood and the friends there for years. I have always intended to correspondence with them, but there is always thing that come up which does not allow me to have the time to write. I can now say I have kind of lost contact with them. But they are always on my mind. I have made up my mind to put in effort to keep up the relationship with effect from today.