It feels a bit weird writing a letter to someone who may never read it nonetheless, I am writing it just in case millions of people are right and I’m wrong! Although compared to many of your friends (and all your family) I have known you for a relatively short time, I have lots of memories of you and, not all of them are bad. Infact, it would take me a long time to list all of the times I’ve been recalling over the last few weeks so, in true X-factor style, here are our best bits:  The viewing of many, many hours of musical footage – all watched (every time) with a full running commentary (I believe you and Roman invented the Directors Cut)  The night in the meat restaurant in Newcastle which ended up with us 3 sitting in the posh lounge area laughing about doing smelly poos in public until we cried  Our annual (and if we were lucky half yearly) dance to Ray of Light  Ramfest – and all it entailed from one year to the next  The ‘Meeting of the Girlfriend’ – Roman was right, we never did see M again!  Our drunken chats – something I now realise you shared with almost everyone you came in to contact with  The Christmas Eve invites and do’s – I’ll never get the Borsch quite right now (its lovely Nic but…….. maybe add a bit more vinegar)  The weekend visits which turned in to almost all week long visits – I have reason to believe you only went home to change CDs  The visiting ritual which meant you made the spare room yours within 5 minutes of arriving and then, and only then, said hello and had a brew  ‘The’ new years eve which still remains the best one I’ve ever had  Roman and your joint Birthday party which didn’t quite work out as we’d all hoped it would  The times when I found it very hard to tell the difference between you and Roman and those two old men in the theatre box on The Muppets I still can’t believe you’re not here anymore and that we didn’t get to say goodbye the way we should have. I never thought I’d end up doing some of the things for you that I did but I hope you know that when it came the time to do them, I didn’t think twice. Although I know that time will help to heal some of the sadness I feel, I can promise you one thing……I will never drink another liqueur coffee without knowing that you would have made a better one! Thank you for being a friend from the very first day we were introduced and for your support and advice with the stuff that mattered. Love always Nicola x x PS – if you’ve managed to charm your new heavenly mates in the same way as you did most people (admittedly, mainly the ladies) you met down here, would you mind having a word about some of the issues you and I never did get to resolve. I’ll keep an eye out for your sign.