The deed was done. All her worldly possessions (actually not all of them, only the ones cool enough for student life) were packed into two cars and at the end of September her brother and I drove her to Warwick.All the way up I was thinking that I simply couldn't believe I was taking my little girl to University. Where had the years gone?
Her brother fixed up her computer and checked the Internet was working. I bought her what might be her last square meal until Christmas. We drove home.Communication was restarted by email. Maternal fears were allayed by the friends she'd made, the societies she'd joined, that fact that she'd discovered the local Tesco.
Then I get an email: "I'm thinking of coming home this weekend."
"Why?" I replied, distraught all over again. "I thought you were having a whale of a time?"
"Oh I am! It's fantastic! I'm loving it!"
"Then why do you want to come home?"
"Um, the laundrette in our block isn't working and I'm running out of socks..."
.
5 comments:
Oh bless - I remember that feeling, but the other way round. In those days we had no email, no mobile phones. The only way to assuage parental fears was to write a letter (which then took a day or so to arrive) or to queue up outside red telephone boxes (clue: if they worked, there was a queue outside - if not, you had to walk for miles to find another one. And in a foot of snow that wasn't funny)
Sounds as if she's settled in really well and you can relax.
I can remember those queues for the phone too...
Jan, the socks thing... NO No NO.... My mother was always insistent that no dirty washing came home with us. Or if it did, we had to wash it when we got back...
Really glad she's settling in.
Oh Kate, those were the days. Good thing it never occurred to us that they might be worried, eh?
Ah. Nice advice, Jane, but too late. I picked her up from the train last night and her washing has been festooning the kitchen all day (she, naturally, has been round at her boyfriend's house).
But she was touchingly pleased to be home and is equally happy to be going back again on Sunday.
And this morning I popped into the M&S sale and bought her another nine pairs of socks.
And some handwashing liquid.
I resent that comment about some things being too cool to take >.> it's more the fact I KNOW I'm going to accumulate other bits to take their place...
Also, how is a jacket potato a square meal?
-Lizzie *who has every right to comment on a post concerning her*
Well, it felt like a square meal to me after all that packing and cramming-in and list-making and driving.
And I still think we could fit more stuff into your room.
Ah, except we'd have to bring it all back next summer. Hadn't thought of that.
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