Rowan gave us a huge fright today. I dropped her off for her maths tuition, saw her walk towards the front door and returned home as usual. Thirty minutes later the phone rang and her tutor, Caroline, asked if we were running late. I replied that I had left Rowan at her home at the usual time. She hadn't arrived and I could immediately feel myself begin to feel very alarmed. How could a fourteen year old girl disappear just steps from someone's front door? I remembered a group of guys standing around a white van as we arrived and I started imagining all sorts of things. It really was a very frightening moment. Thirty minutes of panic later and she was safe and sound with Caroline. She had knocked on the wrong door (they have two), received no answer and having left her phone at home had wandered up and down the street in the rain not knowing quite what to do. In some ways it wasn't like Rowan at all to react like that. She was upset and embarrassed, but to be honest we were all just so relieved she was safe. I really can't imagine what parents must go through when their child disappears. Just in that short time I felt as though I had aged five years.

And relax.

I made pizza again and the girls watched Ice Age 3. They decided to sleep in the same room, so put the camp bed up in Rowan's room where they proceeded to not go to sleep for a very long time. Nick and I watched Away We Go which I really enjoyed. The two central characters were brilliant and there were some lovely quirky moments.