Rocky Road to Dublin

At the unearthly hour of 5am, in real terms 4am since the clocks went back yesterday and the old body isn't yet acclimatised, I dropped my littlest at the school gate to get the bus to Barcelona to fly to Dublin for a study week for English.

As he walked away lugging his case I had a premonition of how I will feel in August when both my boys are taking flight and leaving the nest. Adam to Uni in Edinburgh to study Product Design and Jack to Stewart Melville for 5th and 6th year and to take Highers. So after 10 years in Spain they have both elected to return to Scotland to continue their education.

It is going to be hard, and I really don't know how the future will pan out, but at the moment Anna and I will rattle about in this big house and listen for the echoes of the thump of the boys on the wooden staircase, the whispers in the walls of the arguments over the shower and the faint remembered chord of the electric guitar.

Knowing we are not alone and that we will be sharing the pain with countless other parents really doesn't help, its the end of a phase for us and the beginning of the most exciting time of their lives for them, time to buy a dog methinks.