Author's Note

Apologies for the lack of a post - I intended to get a post written up before all the Christmas mayhem hit, but unfortunately it never quite happened. This week should be a bit quieter so I'll try and get a bonus post up sometime to make up for it! I know pretty much exactly where the blog is going over the next year so the problem is definitely finding time rather than figuring out what to write :)

In the meantime, if anyone has any feedback on the blog so far it would be very much appreciated! My long-term aim is to be an author one day but before that becomes a reality I need a lot of practice, so any comments on writing style, conversations, character development, the pacing of each post (or any other aspects you want to comment on!) would be very useful at this stage. However, I understand for a lot of you the fun is in the reading and not the commenting (I've generally always been a non-commenter in the past reading other blogs), so otherwise just a massive thank you for taking the time to read my story :)

And finally - hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (or a wonderful holiday for those non-Christmas aligned!), and a very Happy New Year to you all!

Jane x

He Wants To Be In America

Cycling back from university on Wednesday, I couldn't decide if I was more excited or nervous about the football game tonight. On one hand, I'd been playing for years, I knew what I was doing, and this was only a friendly - nothing to worry about! On the other, the irrational part of me had been repeating a mantra all day: "This is it. This is it. Don't mess it up - this is it."

Last year in the team, I'd shared almost exactly half of the games with our other keeper. We'd both been about as good as each other, and it was a good way to not have too much pressure on one person whilst still getting plenty of games. As soon as I'd met Hayley, our keeper this year, I'd known it was going to be different, but I had university to focus on. On top of that, I was being Treasurer of the Committee for the second year running, which was it's own major source of stress. I'd taken the first step and spoken to our head coach, saying that I understood Hayley had a lot more experience and would probably get more games, but I was happy to take a step back and not play quite as many as last year - saving awkward conversations all round.

It had backfired a little though, as I hadn't played any games at all yet. I knew we were trying to win the league, but when I didn't even get picked for the games where we knew we'd win by ridiculous margins, it was a bit disheartening. I'd responded by trying to become the most reliable team member there was: attending every single training session, coming along to support the home games from the sides, and always keeping my Wednesdays free for games. I loved playing football and not being able to play anything was killing me.

Wrapped up in my thoughts, I was back at my flat before I knew it. Taking the stairs two at a time, I dropped all my university folders on my bed before heading to the kitchen.

"Dave? You home? I've got a match tonight so I'll be eating early, you want anything now?" Opening the fridge, I tried to decide what I wanted to eat. Nothing too heavy, but equally without eating I'd almost definitely faint... Picking out some spring onions, salmon trimmings and creme fraiche, I decided pasta would definitely do if I didn't cook my normal ridiculous amount. Despite being Head Chef of the flat, I still could never figure out how much dry pasta would give a reasonable portion size, and I had a tendency to make far too much.

Frowning slightly, I realised Dave hadn't replied. I'd bumped into him that morning ago on campus as he was about to head off to the cinema with Jess, but he said he'd still be home before I was. Wandering into the hallway, I saw his door was open. Sticking my head through, I saw him sitting on his bed staring out the window. Jumping on his bed and dropping down next to him, I nudged him with my elbow, and he burst into tears.

Suddenly looking at him properly, I saw how red his eyes were and the mound of tissues next to him on the bedside table. My stomach sank - had him and Jess argued again? Or something even worse?

"Dave, what's wrong? What happened?" I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug as he sobbed, unable to speak for the moment. As I rubbed my hand up and down his back, he pointed at a piece of paper lying in front of him. Confused, I picked it up and started to read. My stomach tensed even further as I realised it was about his industrial placement. As part of his course, students had the option to go on an industrial placement from January to September next year, and I knew Dave had been waiting on the result from an interview with his top company last week.

As I began to understand what I was reading, I frowned even harder. Surely I hadn't read that right? It looked like-

"I got it." Dave stared at the floor, not meeting my gaze. "I got the job."

"But - what? You got it? But you should be happy! That's amazing - congratulations!" I went to hug him again but he held up a hand to stop me.

"It's in America."

Stunned, I stared at him. America? We hadn't even known that was an option when I was helping him research companies. I was still thrilled for him though - this was a fantastic opportunity, and we'd been told so many times that it was so rare for students to get an overseas placement - you had to seriously impress them to get one. I couldn't figure out why Dave wasn't over the moon as well - until it hit me. Jess.

He half laughed as he noticed my expression change. I knew she made him happy so generally I didn't comment on anything Jess did, but to cause this level of misery when Dave had been offered such a great opportunity? To make my best friend this unhappy? No way could I accept that.

"Oh, Dave... She was there with you? She didn't take it well?"

He nodded and started explaining. Apparently he'd got the email just before the film started and immediately told Jess, unable to believe he'd done so well. Dave is a great chemist, but he's much better at the practical than the theory so his grades don't always reflect how talented he is, and it's affected his self-confidence. However, Jess hadn't dealt well with the news. She'd started crying but refused to talk to him, leaving them sitting there with her silent tears throughout the entire film. Afterwards Dave had tried to discuss it with her, but she'd told him it was too much for her and left him standing in the street without another word. From experience he knew chasing after her never worked, so he'd come home and sat in his room until I'd arrived back.

As he trailed off, I took his hands in mine. "Dave, I know I'm not always the most sympathetic when it comes down to relationships versus career, but this is such a great opportunity for you. Please don't tell me you're considering not going?"

He instantly shook his head. "No, I think that's why she was so upset. I didn't even consider not taking it. But I want to make it work long distance - I love her, Jane. And it's only half a year, and then I'm back in Edinburgh. She just won't even talk to me right now..." He stopped talking again as more tears trailed down his face. Feeling helpless and angry, I turned to my usual fallback when faced with tears: the magic powers of food.

Dragging him through to the kitchen, I opened the cookie tin and placed it in front of him as I started preparing tea. I'd made a batch of double chocolate cookies the previous night so I knew there were plenty enough there to at least slightly cheer him up. Sugar and sleep: the two great healers in my philosophy!

As I chopped the spring onions and set the pasta cooking, I managed to tease a few more details out of him. The job was in Philadelphia, and it wasn't just him - there were 8 students in total from across the UK, with one other student from Edinburgh joining him out there. It sounded like exactly the kind of work he wanted to be involved in too, and he slowly started talking more excitedly. Plus, as I reminded him, the perfect opportunity for me to take a holiday out and visit him! My dad had accumulated a lot of BA points through various business trips, and had said I could use them whenever I wanted, so flying out there wouldn't break the bank. After he pointed out where Philadelphia actually was in America (my UK geography is already pretty awful, never mind USA geography), and I realised how close it was to New York (home of the magical land of Broadway theatres!), my excitement levels quickly rose to match his. Luckily Dave was one of the rare breed of guys who enjoyed musical theatre too, so I was already planning how many shows we could fit into a week in my head.

As I served the pasta, he brought the conversation back round to Jess. "I can understand why she's upset." Seeing my skeptical look, he frowned at me and continued. "No, seriously. If she told me she was moving halfway across the world with no warning, I'd be pretty upset too. I just wish she'd talk to me about it."

"Well, she has to talk to you, sooner or later. And it's not like you're giving up on you two because of the placement! So really, what you two should be doing is making the most of your time here before you fly off."

He nodded slowly. "I think I'll try and phone her again, and see if she'll let me come round and talk."

I told him that was probably the best idea, and as he headed back to his room I quickly washed up the dishes and changed into my football gear. The temperature was dropping fast at nighttime at the moment, so after throwing on about four layers, I was ready to face the cold, and the match.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bouncing on my feet, I waited for Bruce to throw the ball at me again. Diving to my left and punching it away, I landed on the frozen ground hard. Grateful for all the padding from my multiple layers, I scrambled up and ran after the ball, inwardly berating myself for punching instead of catching. After finally reaching the ball, I picked it up and started jogging back, only to see Hayley standing chatting with Bruce - in full goalkeeper gear.

Feeling sick, I joined them in front of the goals where Hayley was apologising for running late.

"So, last minute change of plans, Jane. Head coach decided that it would be good for both of you to play, so you'll play the first half and Hayley will play the second." Trying to keep tears back, I nodded. I didn't trust my voice as Bruce and Hayley started talking about the other team and the players we'd need watch out for. Slowly, my tears hardened into resolve - so what if I only had 45 minutes to play? The aim was still the same - show that I was good enough.

The first thirty minutes flew by. I was so focused on not messing up, and so far I was managing that - I was picking up loose balls, letting my defence know ASAP of any unmarked players, and my goal kicks were the best they'd been in a while. However, the other team hadn't really had an opportunity to score yet. I couldn't relax and enjoy the game - pure adrenaline was rushing through me, and as the end of the half appeared, the pressure to do something amazing to prove myself mounted.

Suddenly, a girl broke free of the defence, with a winger keeping her company down the left. Our defence were pelting it back down the field towards me, but a quick glance showed me they weren't going to reach me in time. Running out to face the striker, I tried to stay slightly between her and the winger. Two on one was almost impossible to stop for a keeper, but if I could try to get a foot out when she passed it, I could knock the ball off enough for the defence to get back and help.

It wasn't a bad plan. In fact, if that's what the striker had planned on doing, as so many other teams did, it might even have worked. Instead, all I could do was watch as she eyed me and the goals up, and then shot the ball between my legs and into the back of the net.

I'm not sure how I made it until half time, and we were lucky that their goal galvanised our team to keep up an attack until the whistle blew. I didn't hear a word of the half-time team talk, just tried to keep it together. As soon as the second half started, I walked a bit away from the reserves and sat on the grass, ignoring the biting cold of the frost. Bruce noticed, murmuring something to Ryan (our head coach) and headed over to squat down next to me.

"Unlucky about that goal at the end, but otherwise a pretty good half!" He smiled at me but I couldn't fake one back.

"Jane, what's up?" Bruce looked genuinely concerned, and that's all it took. Tears started streaming silently down my face.

"I blew it. I needed to prove myself, I needed to show Ryan that I was good enough to play - all I want is a game Bruce! Just one game! He wouldn't even pick me last week when we played the bottom team in the league. And after that he's not going to pick me against Hayley again." I looked up in time to see Hayley make a fantastic diving save. As much as I wanted to hate her in that moment, I couldn't do anything but respect her talent.

I finally looked Bruce in the eye. "I don't mean to whine, or demand a game. I get it, I really do - she's brilliant, and we need to win the league this year." As Treasurer, I knew how much of a bonus winning the league would be to our finances, and believe me we needed the money.

"It's just... I love football. It makes me feel alive, and I love being part of the team. But this year? I barely know the team because I've not had a single game with them. And I'm not enjoying training or games like this, because all I feel is the pressure to show that I am actually good. Not amazing, not the best keeper we have, because I'm not. I just want to Ryan to feel he can play me in a game against the bottom team of the league, because if he can't trust me there, why am I even in the team?"

Taken aback, Bruce didn't say anything. I hated what I was right now - I was never the crying in public type, and even less so the whinging type. All I wanted to do was head home to bed, curl up with my hot water bottle, and cry where no one could see me. Getting up, I told Bruce I'd see him at training on Monday, and headed back to my bike.

Whiskers

Sitting in class, we were playing our new favourite game: lecturer bingo. Or specifically, Fred Bingo. This particular lecturer was one of the fun kind who only worked at a university to do research, and hated all student-related work that was pushed onto them. Considering we'd worked out that he'd plagiarised the entire course from one of our standard textbooks, it wasn't exactly inspiring us to stay interested for the full two hour double lecture.

The only redeeming feature of Fred was that his lectures mainly consisted of him repeating certain 'stock phrases': "one shoe fits all", "all the nitty gritty", and our particular favourite, "BOOM!". One of my friends, Ethan, had started up a bingo game amongst our group, each of us choosing a phrase and counting how many times Fred said it. Bonus points if he used two of them together in a combo, and even better if you asked him a question that he answered with a stock phrase.

Still, even with Fred Bingo keeping us occupied, it couldn't detract from the sheer dullness of his voice and the topic at hand. I already knew that I wanted a job in the energy sector, and the finer points of solids separation in hydrocyclones weren't going to do me much use there. Bob seemed to feel the same way, as he started poking my wrist with his pen. Audibly sighing, I ignored him as he started drawing on the back of my hand and checked the family Whatsapp. Mum had sent me a daily picture of Inka, our border collie, fast asleep under a tree in the garden. Grinning to myself, I messaged her back one-handed asking her to give Inka a cuddle from me. Although I really loved university and the freedom it gave compared to growing up completely isolated in the country, there was always a part of me missing my dog, even more so than the rest of my family. I'd justified it to mum as that I had plenty of other people to talk to, which just made the lack of a furry friend to stroke in the evenings even more conspicuous.

The sudden increase in volume alerted me to the fact that Fred had disappeared for our halfway five minute break - although with Fred's special dedication to our education, it was likely to be more like fifteen. Not that I was complaining! I turned back to see what horrors Bob had drawn on my hand, fully expecting to see some form of male genitalia. I loved my guy friends, but they were seriously predictable at times.

"What... what even is that?" I squinted at my hand, completely confused at the blue mess he'd created. Well, it wasn't a penis. Bob put the pen down and grinned broadly.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Um... no. It really isn't." I twisted my hand, trying to see it at the angle he'd been drawing it from. "Wait... oh no. You haven't... is that a hairy foot?!"

Bob snorted and crumpled over laughing whilst I stared at him in mock horror. I'd made the mistake of walking to uni with both Dave and Bob the previous week, which had mainly involved them repeatedly making hobbit jokes about me (due to the fact that my home county was generally referred to as 'the shire' by locals). It had culminated in Bob asking Dave if my feet really were as hairy as legends told, with them both now trying to convince me to remove my socks around them as often as they could. Have I ever mentioned that my friends are certifiably crazy?

Staring at the (awfully drawn) representation of a hobbit foot on my hand, I failed to mask my sudden fit of giggles. Determined to get my own back, I dived towards Bob's hand with my own pen, but only managed to scratch a few wobbly lines before he was holding me away from him.

"Not fair... That's not how this works!" I struggled against him as he laughed, but as much as my mild feminist hated to admit it, built rugby player was never going to be overcome by tiny Scottish girl, no matter how annoyed.

Sticking out my tongue (I know, mature), I relaxed. "Fine! Have it your way!" As he let me go I leaned down and grabbed my bag, searching through it. I knew it had to be in here somewhere... Bob eyed me suspiciously before Ray asked him a question from his other side. As he turned away, my fingers came into contact with a hard, thin object - yes!

Flicking the lid off, I sat up and drew a long, black and rather permanent stripe down Bob's arm with the marker pen I'd found. He yelped and grabbed his arm, giving me the opportunity to stripe him some more before he realised his mistake. Smirking smugly back at him, I revelled in my victory a bit too long.

Taking me completely by surprise, a hand appeared from behind me and plucked the marker out of my hand. Before I even had the chance to see who it was, my arms were pinned to my side as mystery betrayer held me trapped in my chair. A low laugh behind my head told me all I needed to know - Ethan.

"Uh... Ethan? Could you maybe, you know, let me go?"

"Well, I could... But where would be the fun in that?" As I started protesting that as I'd only got a few stripes in compared to Bob's Middle Earth inspired sketch, a sudden movement to my left caught my eye.

I looked up to see the marker in the last place I wanted it - Bob's hand. My stomach dropped a little in dread - when you wound Bob up he didn't really have many limits, and from his face I could see he was definitely at that point.

"Not the face. Please, anything but the face!" Seeing Bob's eyes light up, I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth.

"So Jane... how do you feel about whiskers?"

My eyes widened and I immediately started shaking my head back and forth so he wouldn't have any steady facial surface to write on, with the additional bonus of whacking Ethan behind me with my ponytail. In terms of a defence mechanism it was pretty pathetic though, as Bob quickly reached out and held my face still with his hand. Shoving away the little thrill of excitement at the sensation of his skin on mine, I glared at him.

"You know I've got football training tonight? I can't turn up with whiskers."

"Your point being..." Bob trailed off as he started colouring my nose in black. I started trying to break free again, but he rapped me on my nose.

"Seriously Jane, think about this. Which would you prefer - beautifully drawn whiskers or black scribbles over your face?"

"He's got a decent point there... Plus, keep hitting me with that ponytail and the scissors are getting involved!" Ethan teased me from behind. At least, I hoped he was teasing. My stubborn part wanted to ignore them but my reasonable voice reminded me that at least whiskers would look marginally better than a permanent black scribble over my face - not to mention, Ethan's hairdressing skills were probably the stuff of nightmares. Accepting my bewhiskered fate, I looked behind Bob to meet Ray's eyes. Whilst he was trying not to laugh, he was also shaking his head at me slowly. Closing my eyes, I screamed at myself silently. Whatever this was, it definitely wasn't backing off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As predicted, I was the centre of entertainment at football training that evening. However, after a brief explanation of how my friends had amused themselves at my expense, the whiskers seemed to lose their novelty and we quickly settled down to training. Unluckily for me, my goalkeeper coach couldn't make training this week so we keepers had to join in with the normal training plan - which today, was circuit training.

Now, there was a reason I became a keeper. Well, the original reason was that my dad became coach of the primary school team, and because I kept kicking the people instead of the ball (demonstrating my excellent co-ordination skills even at such an early age), I got put into goals. Since then it had grown on me - sure, it mainly involved people kicking a hard, painful ball as powerfully as they could at you, but once you lost the fear of being hit it was actually good fun. You had an unparalleled view of the field, and it gave you the perfect opportunity to direct your team and spot any potentially unnoticed plays from your opponent. And, of course, you didn't have to run.

Ninety horrendous minutes later, I was collapsed on the astroturf slowly pulling my football boots off and dreading the cycle home. As I was trying to figure out if the jelly that had replaced my legs would survive even getting on my bike, our head coach called everyone round.

"So, as you girls know, we don't have a league match so I've set up a mid-week friendly. Jane, are you available to play as keeper?"

"Yes! Definitely!" I virtually bounced up beaming, whiskers and leg fatigue forgotten. I hadn't had a chance to play at all yet this season, and I was desperate to show our coach that I was good enough to be picked. This would be my chance!

Back to Routine

Once Bob came back to classes, everything fell back into the normal routine. He still sat next to me in classes, doodled on my notes and teased me over anything and everything, but that's where it stopped this time. No more going round to watch films at the weekend, I started cycling to university instead of walking with him every day, and I told Ray to yell at me if I even hinted at entering awkward territory again.

Besides, fourth year at university was as horrific as people had promised. In Scotland, the Masters degrees take five years to achieve but as half of the final year is spent on placement in industry, the really hard stuff is all combined into this year. In addition, because I'm certifiably insane, I'd asked to shift my workload to 65% : 35% between the two semesters. As I'm convinced that our lecturers hate us, 40% of this year's grade is based on an 11 person design project completed in the second semester. As I'm a complete control freak, I decided I'd rather free up some time to devote myself to the project then, and get the extra classes out of the way now.

However, although it seemed like a good idea at the time, I was regretting it now! I had so many assignments and mini group projects going on at the same time, and on top of that I had football training, my choir and my increasingly failing attempts to keep going to zumba classes. Most of my friends were getting by on pure caffeine but I'd never acquired a taste for coffee, so a combination of sugar, early nights and super long lie-ins at the weekend were keeping me going.

"Jane! So, have you thought about what to get them yet?"

Rubbing my eyes, I resisted the urge to fake bad signal and go back to sleep. Although I loved my sister, phoning before 9am on a Saturday morning went against all that was pure and holy.

"Uggh. Not awake. What are you talking about?"

"Oh my god Jane, you've forgotten! How could you have forgotten? It's only their 50th birthday, it has to be perfect, like absolutely perfect. We've only got two months to get everything ready!"

Again, I have to state I do love Alyssa. When we're not living together or organising presents, we get on like a house on fire. Our mum always raised us to put time into choosing thoughtful gifts for people but with Alyssa it had backfired into her becoming a Giftzilla, to my regular frustration. However, luckily for her I was way too tired to start any fights this morning. And in this case she was actually right - both my parents were turning 50 within a week of each other, so they'd planned a family weekend away at Crieff Hydro, a very posh hotel in the middle of Scotland. Sorting out presents was up to us three kids (myself, Alyssa and our younger brother Peter).

"Ahh. I hadn't forgotten - time is just flying past so quickly, that's all. Let me get up and showered, and then we'll Skype and try and sort something out?"

Slightly pacified, she agreed to at least let me get up and eat breakfast first. Twenty minutes later, all clean and scrubbed, I was poaching a few eggs when Dave wandered in. Dave is one of my flat mates and my best friend - I met him in first year and soon realised he was one of the few people I could deal with talking to early in the morning. When he proposed living together for second year, it was a no brainer. We came from very similar backgrounds, so it felt very normal to share food costs and eat together - something which apparently wasn't the normal thing to do amongst many of my other friends. We also had our Ginger Wednesday night tradition - essentially us taking advantage of the 241 cinema ticket offer that Orange provide every week, but as Dave is perhaps the most ginger person you've ever seen, we had to rename it. It was proving to be an education, as I always preferred musicals and comedy/dramas whilst Dave loved awful action remakes.

However, perhaps the most important thing as to why he was my best friend was that I had absolutely zero romantic attraction to him. In my eyes, he was my elder brother in all but blood.

As Dave greeted me groggily, his girlfriend Jess entered behind him. Giving me a sickly-sweet smile, she asked how university was going. Hiding a grin of my own, I kept my answer brief. Although she was never mean to my face, Dave had moaned repeatedly of how jealous she was of our friendship. In particular, she hated our Ginger Wednesday tradition. Dave had reassured her multiple times that our relationship was like brother and sister, but it didn't seem to help. Unlike the Bob situation, I was certain that I had given her no reason for her jealousy, and it was clear to anyone that Dave was head over heels for her.

"Jane, where's the carrot things? Those cupcakes you made yesterday?" Dave poked his head round into our tiny kitchen and I gestured with my head towards the fridge.

"Dave, are you sure you really need to eat those? Why not just have toast?" Jess tried and failed to sound light-hearted.

"Oh come on babe, they've got walnuts and carrots in them - basically health food! Plus, you need to try one, these are de-licious, Jane's a baking master!"

Laughing, I stepped out into the lounge to let him past. "Can I get that in writing for every time I have a baking disaster? No more teasing me for my epic cake failures ever again!" I goofily started doing a victory dance around the table, stopping abruptly when I saw Jess glaring at me.

"Um, my sister's probably waiting for me, so I'll go eat this in my room..." I grabbed my eggs and toast and scooted out of there as quickly as possible. I don't really understand what Dave sees in Jess, especially with the number of times he's ended up crying on my shoulder after one of their arguments. However, I'm not exactly the Relationship Queen myself, so who am I to say anything?

I powered up my laptop and messaged Alyssa and Peter to let them know I was ready. They immediately video called me back.

"OK, so I figure we need at least one big present each. And then possibly a few joint presents... oh and a cake! And decorations for the lodge we're staying in - I'm thinking balloons, lots of sparkly things - oh, we could put that mini '50' confetti in their presents so it goes everywhere when they open it!"

Opening up a browser window, I started googling whilst Alyssa kept firing suggestions at me. Peter occasionally chimed in, and between us we came up with a good few suggestions. Apparently Dad had already bought Mum a new golf bag and a few clubs on our behalf, so that was Mum's big present sorted. For the first joint present we decided to get a few really nice prints of our dogs, both current and passed away, and luckily we managed to find a few deals online which meant it wouldn't break the bank.

We were struggling for another joint present when Peter suggested Blue Mountain coffee - a coffee that my parents swear by, which they first tried when on holiday to Jamaica for their 40th birthdays. From there the foodie ideas started flowing - cheese from Lancashire where they were born, the local chilli artisan jam my Mum loves so much, the aforementioned coffee, Blackpool rock for Mum and fancy dark chocolate for Dad. Alyssa already had a small hamper so that was that sorted!

The real problem was a big present for my Dad. He is one of those people who will just go and buy whatever he wants, so buying him presents he doesn't already own is always a real pain. Spurred on by our 'food from the past' theme for the hamper, I was running through my favourite memories of my Dad. Suddenly, I had it.

"Peter, remember the 2005 Ashes? When we decided to go down last minute for the last day of the test and ended up with amazing seats? How about we recreate that?"

Peter and Alyssa loved it. The Ashes were returning to England next year and one of the tests was being played in Durham, relatively close to Edinburgh. Of course, we'd have to book the tickets now instead of buying them on the door as we did last time, but I was sure Dad could cope. That day was one of my favourite memories: it was the day I really became interested in cricket, and an amazing experience with my Dad and brother. Cheering on the England teams against the Aussies, the tension as we came so close to winning, and the glorious sunshine - it couldn't have been better. Trying to recreate it was maybe a risky attempt, but I was thinking that if I put the tickets inside a handwritten letter letting Dad know how much that day meant to me, and how much it would mean to spend another day like that with him... well, if that didn't bring a tear to his eye, I don't know what would!

"OK, so Peter, you need to find good photos for the prints. I'll look up the foodie items and start ordering them. Jane, you need to talk to Mum to see if she'll cover the cost of the cricket tickets. Anything else... Oh! Cake!"

"Actually, I might have an idea for that..." I was thinking of Ray - I knew that he was a very accomplished amateur baker, and had often baked cakes for friends and family. From many tasting sessions, I knew his cakes tasted good!

"Just tell me what theme to go for and I'll have a chat with him". We decided on a golf-themed cake, with the flag having a '50' on it. Alyssa reminded me that Mum wasn't too keen on butter-cream icing, so I made a mental note to ask Ray what alternatives he could come up with.

Saying goodbye, I sat back smiling. For once it had actually been a very productive brainstorming session, and when we weren't arguing Alyssa and I were an amazing team. Spinning slowly in my chair, I caught sight of the pile of notebooks waiting for my attention. Groaning, I nipped through to the kitchen and grabbed a carrot cupcake before settling down with my good friends Fluid Mechanics and Equations of State. Who needs caffeine when you have sugar?