Had a lovely day yesterday. Firstly we took the girls to the pool and Ellie astonished us with her newly acquired swimming skills. She's doing brilliantly, the lessons are really working well.

After that we all came home for lunch and got changed to go to Mum and Dad's for dinner. Mum and Dad have got Olive and John (Mum's cousin and her husband) staying so we were popping over to say hello. Olive emigrated to the US to marry John ages ago, she was a GI bride, and despite living on the other side of the world, I probably see mor of her than I do some of my family that live in Edinburgh!! Typical eh? But then again, considering we're emigrating too it's very heartening to see that distance doesn't split familes and often has the very opposite effect.

Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon. Olive and John were keen to hear all our tales about moving and Olive has given us her brother Bob's number. I've never met Bob, he lives in Melbourne which is handy and Olive says he'd be delighted if we got in touch when we move so that's great news. At one point during the afternoon Olive said to Mike and I "are you excited?" Those 3 little words meant so much to us. It's the first time anyone close has asked us about the move in a very positive way and it was lovely for us to be able to smile and say absolutely, instead of having to tread on eggshells and pretend we're not happy about the move!

When it came time for us to leave, Olive said "we might not see you again Gill". It hit me like a brick "but we'll see you next summer won't we?" I replied. No, she said. "we're not coming over until September next year" Then she hugged me and we were both in tears. It was a different kind of hug to the usual "see you next year" kind we usually exchange. She held me much tighter and for longer. I really really didn't expect to feel so emotional. Then John gave me a hug too and it was the same. Very sad. They're are really lovely couple and I sincerely hope we do manage to see them again. They are hoping to start living 6 months in the UK and in the US soon, so hopefully we will see them at some point on one of our trips back.