The last third of my Friday was lovely. The first third had mainly been sleep (also lovely), but the middle third had mainly been working from home. Which was a little less lovely than lovely. Even if this does goes against all accepted Goldilocks-induced wisdom that things in the middle are always just right.

Well, Goldilocks clearly hadn't spoken to Ms E. Which is what I did after my last bits of work were tidied up (/forgotten until Monday). I called to firm up Ms E's shopping list and we ended up chatting for a good half hour. It was wonderful. Sometimes people say the art of conversation is being interesting - but I think it's all about being interested. And Ms E spoke about so many different and interesting things, but also wanted to know about me - it's lovely to feel listened to and heard - a little tonic all of us need.

And so I made the short hop and skip to Lewisham a little buoyant for a dark winter evening, and even the dooms and glooms of the radio news filling my headphones didn't lower me. At Tesco, I even had a conversation with a lady about whether I was 'bloody freezing' in my shorts. Wonderful.

Following my short jaunt around the shops, I popped over to Ms E's to leave her essentials on the doorstep, ready and waiting for her nurse to take them in when they arrived. A little call to Ms E (although sadly I could only get through to her voicemail) to let her know and I was off back to Greenwich. Still springy in step from having spent a few happy minutes with Ms E earlier.

Nice one.