All you need.

I had quite a lot of thoughts in my head today, jostling about like crazed shoppers outside a Boxing Day sale. Now I only have one.

It is this:

Sometimes, all you need is someone who is good and kind and funny and wise, who is wry and pithy and cuts through the crap, who notices. Then the good and funny and wise person says lots of good and funny and wise things, and your shoulders come down so fast that you actually think you are going to fall over. You suddenly realise you had composed yourself an exoskeleton made of fret and angst and bits of twig and binder twine. You totter a bit as it falls to the ground. And then the good and funny and wise person makes you laugh so much that you really do fall over.

That’s all you need.

Oh, and one of these:

And perhaps one of these:

Well, that, and a damn good recipe for Irish stew.