I am home alone. Gerard flew to South Africa on Saturday for a week of very intense wine study, as he has enrolled on a course, (over 3 years!), that will take him travelling all over the world to learn still more about each countries wine production- sounds like lots of hard work, but fascinating all the same and my darling son flew off to New York on a Performing Arts trip with some of his school mates on Sunday- thus it is just Malmsey and I left “home alone”. Malmsey is living through a phantom pregnancy -see her blog for the fun details http://caninetailsofmarmitemalmsey.co.uk/, so the week has so far been eventful without them both.

On Sunday morning, having dropped Romy off into the excellent care of x5 very brave teachers (who would want the responsibility of x40 odd teenagers in New York!), I drove back towards TerraVina feeling somewhat bereft. I know it may seem overly dramatic, (no guessing whom Romy gets his dramatic tendencies from!), to overstate the feeling, but it is the first time that both of my “boys” have been away at the same time, for such a length of time and it hit home that Romy is no longer “my baby” but a very mature, handsome and wickedly funny young man, striding out on his own to explore his fledgling independence.

Of course, as is so typical of teenagers, there have been so few text messages that when a one worder, or if I’m really lucky one liner, arrives from him, I am pathetically grateful for the news, such as it is… at midnight last night I was luckier, two texts from him… one with two or three words letting me know NY is awesome and the 2^nd asking me to top up his pre-paid credit card as he’s been shopping in Macy’s- bless him!

Two days in and I am getting used to the peace, the calm and the tidiness of the house. Malmsey and I are snuggling up together to have tranquil nights in (when I’m not at TerraVina) and we are marveling at the stillness that pervades an almost empty house.

As always, the fantastic Team TerraVina have been brilliant at reading my mood, ensuring I’m not feeling lonely without my “boys” and feeding me chocolate and hot drinks, (ok, sometimes alcoholic ones too) to keep me chipper- we are having fun and despite the weekend being very hectic and short of Will, Lydia, Laura and Gerard, (Laura is in Argentina on a fantastic two week trip), all has gone well so far and whilst we will be pleased to see everyone back, it is very much business as usual and well done team for holding the fort so well.

Till next week

Nx