It’s one week since I was spending my first day with the most amazing and wonderful @missoneminute. There’s that cliche about meeting someone and feeling like you’ve known them for years, but I know now that it’s true, because it really felt like a reunion with a dearest old friend. For days or even weeks I’d been thinking, I should be more nervous, especially because usually I would be – but the nerves never came, and from the very first moment talking and being together felt completely natural and comfortable and easy, and that never changed. Pictured above are just a few of the incredibly thoughtful gifts she brought for my birthday, including the most beautiful set of miniature vintage images of Margate, and an even more precious Arcadian locket, which are some of the most delightful and heartwarming gifts I’ve ever been given and I will treasure them. She put so much thought and care into making my birthday so special that I’m still not sure I can adequately describe how touched I was. 

It’s been a constant source of surprise and joy to get to know someone who shares so many of my really quite eclectic interests, and to get to enjoy some of them together last weekend – from the medieval village to the haunted hotel(s) to the festival to the shell grotto – was so special to me, and I wish we could have just carried on adventuring and seeing what else the surreal narrative would manifest! 

Not only that, but despite the fact that we’ve led very different lives, she understands me and my sometimes off-kilter mind in a way that’s always reassuring and comforting, and I’m so very grateful for that, and for her patience and support in helping me do things I never thought I would, or could! 

The best friends are those who not only enrich your life, but who actually make you grow and try to improve as a person, just by being who they are, and I know absolutely that that’s happened since we’ve known each other. I feel so lucky to have you in my life, Marta, and I hope you always are. Come back soon, because we still have so many miles to travel before we’re done to death in this town, or any other!