Goodbye Amy

Rachel was sad that the time had come to take Amy to the airport - and not just because it meant another nasty drive at yuck o'clock in the morning.

Rachel wasn't the only sad person up horribly early. The first miserable face to appear was Jody's: "Mummy, I don't want to say goodbye to Amy yet. Can I come to the airport?"

Then Dylan came limping through, declaring grumpily: 'I'm sad. I'm coming with Amy."

Finally, even Mark climbed into the back seat of the Barbie car - although his red eyes were due to yesterday's night out at Nobu.

If we were in a film, Madonna's "So far away" would have been playing on the radio. But, as it was, we got Britney's "Womaniser". Still, it was very sad watching Amy walk away in the rear view mirror while we dodged speeding taxis.

Rachel had thought she would miss Amy helping out with the cleaning. But at 2pm, while Rachel was waving a j-cloth towards the toilet, there was a knock at the door. Behind the door stood a wonderful woman named Sunita offering to do the cleaning. With obvious reluctance, Rachel handed over the j-cloth.

Rachel had thought she would miss Amy helping out with the children. Particularly with Jody's 'make-a-piece-of-transport' homework. But both kids were a joy all day - Jody even helped with the cleaning before the arrival of super-Sunita - and we made a lovely pink Barbie car for a real Barbie.

It was at 9.30pm, with Mark still at work and with no one to talk to about how crap the TV was, Rachel realised that she missed Amy for Amy.

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