18 on Sunday...

Hard to believe... but you are, and from the pics I've seen, you've grown into a beautiful young lady. I see that you are off to University and that you are having to sell Absolute Taboo, as you won't be around - must be difficult, but no doubt you will find a good home for her. I wonder which Uni you are going to? Your brothers and sister have all left their Uni's now and are all working. Katie qualified as a Social Worker, working with problem teenagers, Ian is in his second year of teaching at a school in Shoreham and Mikey is working at a company that sets up booking engines for hotels. Ian got married too... it was a lovely day and you should have been there...

I've been thinking about you a lot today as it doesn't seem possible that that day in the R.S.C.H. was 18 years ago... I've been travelling a bit this year too, and you'll be delighted to hear that your named is carved on a mountainside in Canouan - you'll have to look it up on a map! We started the year with a trip to Tromso in Norway and Longyearbyen in Svalbard, where it was 24 hour darkness and between minus 20 and minus 40 degrees, and we went on adventures on snowmobiles and driving our own dog team, as well as going ice caving under a glacier and finally, and quite spectacularly, seeing the Northern Lights... It was quite a trip! We finished the year with a few days in Toronto before Christmas and went to the Niagara Falls - they are another spectacular sight and worth putting on your list of things to do one day..!

I've been on Twitter for a couple of years and I see that you're on there too now, so I'm going to send you a tweet on Sunday, just to wish you all the best for your birthday... Even, if I can't see you, I constantly think about you and I hope that 5 years on from my last attempt to make some form of contact with you, that this time you'll take my message for what it is and allow us to maybe become friends, (even if it's only in cyber space...), as I no longer expect any more than that...

I still love you Holly - the unconditional kind...

Happy Birthday my girl,

Dad xx