May Sisters’ Challenge; Mint (as in perfect)

This is Helen. She's on a short visit back to the UK from her office which is currently a lump of rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Later on in the year her office will be in Antarctica. She’s a meteorologist - something she has pursued with a passion since a teenager.

When she was 16 she played bass in a very good local band. So good that they won a ‘battle of the bands’ competition, the first prize being time in a recording studio. One night she had a gig in Kingston-upon-Thames; this being about 60 miles from Milton Keynes and a school night, it was agreed that her band would go on first and I would collect her around 9.30pm during what I hoped would be the interval.

I was a bit late arriving (this was before SatNavs) and the other band had already gone on stage. As I walked in, my ears were assaulted by a wall of sound and I made my way, self-consciously, through the mosh pit. When I got to Helen, she was sitting at the edge of the stage completely oblivious to everything going on around her, doing her A-Level homework.

As I reminded her of this, this afternoon, she reminded me that she had turned down a tour of Germany with the band because she was concerned about her Physics coursework.

I will spare her blushes and gloss over the fact that, like many of her contemporaries, she went through the stroppy teenager phase. They may start out as cute - and end up wonderful. But - that bit in between……

Helen is warm, funny, smart, talented and an absolute joy to spend time with. Perfect in fact.