Well – suddenly it’s stopped being a surreal future, and instead it hits home as “here and now”. As I’m writing this we’ve just got through our first day on the road, and we’re in Canada – which hasn’t been as difficult as we’d imagined, but it’s been a lot, lot longer.

Emily woke at 2am, and beyond 2:30 there was no way that she was going back to sleep. So we’ve been up since then with her, trying to keep her quiet in the hostel, then Charlotte woke, and at 4am we had our first breakfast (Honey Nut Loops, since you ask!), then at 6am we hit the street and had coffee and cinnabuns in the shop round the corner (can’t recommend both of them highly enough to give you a caffeine and sugar rush when you’ve got jet lag!). Then on to the shoreline, to see the sun rising, the floatplanes taking off, and Vancouver buzzing with joggers and wino’s.

We’ve had a pretty good day – the most amazing thing we saw today was a tree growing on the top of a skyscraper.

But the key is – we’re here, we’re well, we’re enjoying it, and so far the only thing the girls are missing is space in their bedroom. Can’t be bad!