Whenever she sings “Happy Birthday”, Jess belts it in a deep, operatic baritone, replete with furrowed brow and sweeping hand gestures.

It’s just one of her many distinctive singing styles, which range from quiet improvised lyrics about how she’s feeling (“Jessie is hungry and needs more sleep…”) hummed under her breath while typing emails, to an approach that could probably best be described as ‘bellowing’, and which tends to occur either in the shower or very close to my ear (the latter invariably sending her into fits of nearly tearful laughter).

Jess frequently accuses me of being obsessed with her, which is pretty much true. Since we’ve started dating, I’ve become perhaps the world’s premier Jessmologist, and I’d be happy to pen out daily, extended, painfully earnest blog entries about her and her singing and how wonderful she is.

I will, however, spare you. Instead, I’ll only share that the morning I really fell in love with Jess, after we’d been dating for a couple of months, was when she turned to me and said, “it’s nice to have a friend.”

And she was totally right. So, to Jess, my best friend and singing instructor, happy birthday wishes and all my love.

xxx