I'm feeling kind of odd today. Partly tired, partly having my nerd-geekness shaken by seeing some true "lifers" (extreme examples, complete with mullets!) in the documentary "The King Of Kong", but mostly as it's really creeping up on me that I'm going to be without my girls for a month.
With their trip now only two sleeps away, we've decided to have a nice family weekend. Mainly composed of having a nice quiet time together, Sue packing and Emily refusing to sleep, regardless of showing all the signs that she'd like to.
This next month will the first time I've been away from Sue since early in our courting when I went to Canada for a solo-holiday (booked before we met) and will be the first time I've been away from Emily for any length of time.
I think back to my dad at times like these. When we first moved to Canada he was on assignment to - ironically - Australia and New Zealand, for weeks at a time. While it must have been hard on mum raising two kids solo, it must have been hard on dad living out of a suitcase and missing vital weeks of our development. I do, however, recall one trip netted us with a new family car that dad would have refused to buy until the existing one had COMPLETELY broken down.
I find myself looking forward to their return more than I have in the past couple of weeks. Sure, there'll be some side benefits - I can sleep until 7am!, I can go to the pictures or do stuff in the evening, but it's a sad list of items in the pro column, when it means I'm without my girls for a long stretch.
At least I have France in November to look forward to.
