Happy Birthday Erin!

17 today!
I couldn’t find any hashbrowns in the shops yesterday so Max made some from scratch, Erin is a vegan so we used gram flour instead of egg, delicious, what looks like scrambled egg on her plate is actually silken tofu, turmeric and salt and pepper fried.
We bought her a good pair of headphones, flowers, Prosecco, bath salts.. Max made a fantastic card and painted her a big birthday banner.

Her parents came to pick her up about 2 pm, they brought lots of Easter goodies and some Prosecco and Rioja for us, they bought steaks for Zebedee instead of chocolate!
There followed a very emotional farewell between Erin and Gulliver, she has been here for a month and the uncertainty of when they will see each other again is so hard...

The sight of my brave 17-year-old son in tears after she left really got to me, he shut himself in his bedroom and played guitar for several hours after she left. A sense of loss hit me all at once, I was very tearful and went out for a walk... The loss of freedom, the loss of performing, the loss of contact with my friends and family, the uncertainty of when any of these things will return... I haven’t really cried yet in all of this, I think there’s just been too much to organise and sort out until now. Anyway I rang my sister who always knows what to say.

We watched a really funny Irish film called extraordinary and had a family dinner tonight, everyone has gone to bed early, I think we are all exhausted.