I posted something a bit meepy last week, and within a few days, I was overwhelmed by lots of lovely people being amazingly kind to me. Several people commented with sympathy and genuinely helpful advice, so thank you all so much.

rysmiel wrote me the sweetest email ever. compilerbitch phoned me and broke the trend where we've been trying to make time to chat for ages and never quite managed it. And she was tremendously sympathetic and helpful. pseudomonas has kept on with his habit of phoning me regularly so we can have lots of interesting conversations; I really appreciate how good he is at reaching me and keeping us properly in contact even when I'm being hermitty. Likewise lethargic_man has been great at emailing me often even when I'm disorganized about replying.

ploni_bat_ploni came over and helped me sort out lots of boring domestic stuff, not to mention helping me to start on making myself over and generally being supportive. She's extra wonderful because she's physically here to hug, and because she has all kinds of interesting ideas. For example, as well as giving me loads of really useful tips about how to dress more stylishly, she educated me about the politics of the beauty industry. Yay for a friend who can argue about left-wing economic stuff without calling me an evil capitalist pig or anything like that.

And hatam_soferet sent me home-made cookies, all the way from New York. Take that, geography! The cookies were packed in with tea-bags, so she told me, Tea and biccies! Instant cheering, just add water.

So I am sitting here glowing with gratitude to all of you. And remembering that I am actually a likeable enough person for such wonderful people to want to be friends with me, so I have the best motivation ever to live up to that.

I have made some progress towards plans for coming to England for Passover. I will probably be around, in the London and Cambridge vicinty, from Friday 30^th March to Thursday 5^th April. Monday 2^nd is the evening of Passover itself, so I am committed to family stuff then, but apart from that, let me know if you want to make arrangements to meet up. It helps if you live within a sensible day trip of Cambridge; I won't have time to do a lot of dashing around the country.