There’s somebody I’d like you to meet. Someone that I met whilst on holiday in Portugal earlier this year. We haven’t kept in touch or anything but this person has had a profound effect on me. We didn’t need to speak then and we don’t need to speak now. Our relationship is about so much more than mere words. Here he is here:

I say “he”. Frankly, I couldn’t be sure of gender, but “he” seems to do. (He’s never complained.) I never asked, but then again our relationship is about so much more than mere gender. I said he looked like a Portuguese Wizbit. He just smiled. He always kept on smiling. He never replied but then again he didn’t have to. Our relationship is about so much more than mere social pleasantries.

We only met on a couple of occasions, always in the exact same spot, where the picture was taken. Ah! That place. That special place! It didn’t matter where it was that we happened to meet though. I guess as an inanimate object, fixed to the floor, you don’t really get about a lot and our relationship is about so much more than places or pleasantries or words or being an actual living thing.

In actual fact, the reasons why he is my best friend that I have ever met on any holiday ever is for a whole list of things he didn’t do:

• He didn’t interrupt my holiday with my family.
• He didn’t ask me any questions about where I was from or where I was staying or how long I was staying for.
• He didn’t join me for a drink or whilst I was eating.
• He didn’t suggest anywhere that I should go that he’d just been to and was in his opinion quite simply amazing.
• He didn’t tell me that he was going there again tomorrow and that I really had to join him and his family.
• He didn’t suggest that we should meet up for drinks later on in the evening and force me to accept out of politeness.
• He didn’t give me his email or phone number and suggest we should keep in contact after the holiday was over.
• He didn’t once get in the way of my holiday, the time I treasure away from everything, with my wonderful family.

What a guy!