I have this friend you see. She’s insanely pretty, ridiculously smart and incredibly kind. So I thought it was only right that she get her very own day of Joy on this journey. We met 4 years ago in Nowra, New South Wales, Australia. My first impressions of her were that I wished I had her confidence, envied the fact that she could seemingly talk to anyone with ease and that she had great taste in tea. She put the milk in first. We were going to be friends.

Lene is one of those people who would be so easy to dislike were they not so damn wonderful. She’s talented, funny, beautiful, generous. She’s creative and determined. There’s not a hateful bone in her yoga-stretched body and I mean that sincerely. I am yet to find something that she is not excellent at. It’s extremely annoying. Over the years she has become what I now refer to as my ‘voice of reason’. When I’m in the throws of a rant and can’t see clearly through the red mist (and let’s face it, this happens quite a lot) she is my anchor, my lighthouse in the storm of crap that is so often my brain on overdrive. We have had many little adventures together. Road trips, house-shares, gigs, weddings, good times, bad times. We’ve hung out on opposite sides of the world, sometimes together in the same place, other times via the magic of Skype.

At the time of going to press, it has been approximately 21 months since we were standing in the same spot, but to me it could have been yesterday. Distance means very little when you love people that much. I can think of no one I would rather have spent my time in Australia with. So, Lena – this is my little dedication to you. A teeny tiny thank you for being the person that you are. Don’t ever change. Not. One. Thing.