It's only ten days since results day, and already there's a sense of loosening in the family unit. I used to bemoan the fact that as the kiddiwinkles got older, they no longer came into the bedroom in the morning bouncing with excitement. On 20th August, I decided that perhaps this wasn't such a cause for regret after all, when two very excited 18 year olds woke me up at the crack of dawn to say that their university places had been confirmed on the UCAS website. Both penultimate son and foster daughter got the A levels they needed to take up their university places, she to do psychology a few miles up the M1, and he to do law on the south coast. Youngest son's AS results allow him to continue to A2, so there was plenty of cause to celebrate.
Since then it has been a flurry of form-filling, finance-juggling and removal-planning as the two of them prepare to leave home and start the next stage of their life journeys. Halls of residence are now expecting them, new bank accounts (with free railcards) are hungrily awaiting the arrival of student loans, and the logistics of moving two people in two different directions in the same week seem to have resolved themselves.
We are also into the final countdown for eldest son's wedding in two weeks: the hen and stag parties in early August were fun and congenial, and pretty well everything is now in place for a wonderful celebration. The table plan from daughter-in-law-to-be arrived with a delightful set of explanations about who everybody is, which I shall print out and file in my handbag for quick reference on the day. Foster daughter has been practising her song and I've been getting to grips with the reading: all that is outstanding is the purchase of suitable shirts for the resident boys and a frock for foster daughter. I'm looking forward to the once-in-a lifetime experience of seeing all my sons in suits at the same time. Of course the real joy is welcoming a whole new set of people into our clan, and sharing my first-born with his new extended family.
My own departure from Sheffield is only a little over the horizon, and as I write up the teaching plans for the coming term, I'm acutely aware that each task is being done for the last time. I alternate between delight and dread: delight at the prospect of a new challenge that is full of excitement and promise; dread at the enormity of the task before me. To thank Sheffield friends for thirty years of their presence in my life, I'm having a film-party - expect your invitations shortly.
This has been a busy summer, but there has been a little time for leisure. Opera in
the Park in Leeds with eldest son and d-i-l-t-b was enormous fun: a very extravagant picnic, the Halle orchestra and soloists, and the perfect weather for such an event. (The picture shows the "arm can-can" - a local tradition apparently. Odd.) There have been meals with friends, and the odd afternoon curled up with a book and a glass of wine. Now the holidays are almost over. (What holidays? I didn't even get away with my lover this summer because things have been so busy) We all stand on the threshold of a new academic year, new ways of living and working, and new futures. This is a good place to be.
