Having heard . . .

Surprisingly, we've had a few emails from her -- she's arrived safely, she's lost her journal (what? I spent hours on that, gluing in her itinerary on separate days, writing little notes from home, writing out addresses etc), she's bought a lot of DVDs. Silly girl. I told her not to buy anything until she's back from her two treks. Now she'll have to carry them!

We're all missing her -- even Sir Talkalot, which is the greatest surprise. I knew I'd miss her. I expected it. The Gadget Man's been reduced to rumblings about where she is, and consulting her itinerary every five minutes. All right, all right, that's an exaggeration! But he looks at the map at least twice every day.

We had her Opa's birthday, and put out a photo of her to represent the missing one -- because that's the one thing she said she was sorry to be missing. My, the bond those two share -- it's touching, but will be scary the day something happens to him. She's so devoted to him -- always has been. I still remember when she did have that febrile convulsion, and woke from unconsciousness crying, not "Mum, Mum", but "Opa, Opa". Yes, that made me feel really good! Made him pretty happy though.

And so we go on with our relatively uneventful lives, which seem that little bit less chaotic than usual, but quieter, more melancholic, and not at all living vicariously through all that she is doing. (Only because we don't exactly know!)