Flying the nest

Today has been a bit emotional for me - I have spent the day packing for Luke who leaves very early tomorrow morning for Strasbourg University where he is spending a term studying French as part of his gap year. They have a really long term, almost 4 months compared to the 11 week term of a UK university(or 8 weeks at Oxbridge).

I was horrified at the thought of not seeing him for so long but he will come back in early November to write the entrance exams for Oxford University as part of his application for 2015.

Today is my birthday and I was going to take a photo of some of the lovely cards I received - but please indulge me with yet another photo of Luke, it will be my last one of him for a long time!

It has taken ages to pack - he needs so much stuff and thankfully he is going by train so does not need to worry about exceeding the baggage allowance on the plane. However, tonight we are going out for dinner to celebrate my birthday...and to say goodbye.