Adios Christie

Anyone who has read this and my other blogs regularly over the last 4 years will feel that they know my niece Christie (pictured) fairly well. She has long become used to "strangers" asking her how she got on with this or that and now reads my blog herself so that she's not surprised in future.

Anyway, Christie is now 17. In fact she'll be 18 on Sunday. And her plan was to apply for a place at Edinburgh Uni to study Mandarin but to defer until 2011. So she's done that and she'll know in July if she's been successful. The reason for deferring was to give her time in France or Spain to consolidate her understanding of European languages. Very sensible idea but with the global recession it didn't quite work out that way.

However, the great news is that last week a job she'd applied for finally came through and tomorrow morning, she sets off on her own to start a new life in Murcia in the South East of Spain.

It's great news and very exciting for her. But of course, we'll all miss her terribly. In fact she's not even away yet and I'm feeling like there's something missing so who knows how her mum, dad and brother will be feeling. It's all happened so suddenly but it's definitely a good move for her. And thanks to Google Earth I can sit of an evening outside her apartment making sure she gets home safely - stalker aunt!!

So this afternoon is the big farewell and I'm sure everyone will be telling her how proud we are of her for having the courage to go out into the world by herself at such a young age. To feel the fear and do it anyway is the sign of a true warrior. The best bit for me however was shortly after she'd told me she had the job. She sent me a text saying "I can still vote in the General Election can't I? I have to make sure I get my vote."! That's my girl!