I spoke to Tess today after an entire day without any proper contact. It was lovely to wake up to an email from her, and to chat online for an hour or so.

I read a wonderful article about how to survive a long-distance relationship at WikiHow. I kind of knew a few things there but it's nice to be reminded and pick up a few more hints.

I cooked a whole chicken with a bulb of garlic and a lemon, each cut in half, stuffed inside it. It was gorgeous and I ate its legs with a glass or three of cider, then removed and chopped the breasts and made two different mixes - honey-mustard and seasoned with sweetcorn, and wolfed two big wraps with salad too!

I emailed a love letter to Tess. I enjoyed writing it, and she pointed out something that'd made me smile when I wrote it, which was "I love that in half the photos I have of you, you look happy and in the other half you look annoyed." I also told her something I'd been trying to find words for for a few days, which was a nice relief.