It has taken being at 'home' here in Tasmania for a few days - and it has been a very brief visit - to truly make me realise something.

The people that I most like - well, love really - in my life are all as weird as hell.

It's ace.

I have written in the past about embracing your own personal peculiarity, but I don't think I have ever said how much I appreciate, and am grateful for, the weird and wonderful ways of my friends.

The eccentric and the elusively ironic are far more interesting than the straightforward. And they are not any the less steadfast or true; they just don't often show their smooshy or sentimental side publicly, but keep the private, private - with an occasional leak in the dam wall admittedly in my case!

The thing is, it is usually those who are a little off centre who have the most creative and fertile minds. Who have the wicked sense of humour. The Machiavellian mastery of the written and spoken word. The crystal clear clarity of Top A on a violin.

I wish I could count myself in this kind of exalted company, but I am just odd. Thankfully they let me lurk on the sidelines and clap like a monkey.

Did I mention kindness goes with weird?

And my goodness, if 2012 taught us anything, it was that the old saw of 'being mad to work here isn't compulsory... but it certainly helps' is pretty much on the money, if we just change the wording a little.

Being mad on Planet Earth isn't compulsory... but I am grateful that I am.

Because it definitely helps.

And it makes this a lot more fun.

With added fun. And sparkles!