I'm quite sad, because Keiron is on a plane to Lima, Peru at the moment. This morning, the taxi came to pick us up at five, so it was an early start and the bright neon lights at Heathrow made me feel like a rabbit in the headlights.

It was a typical grey autumn morning in the UK. At Heathrow, people were only just starting to trickle in and most of the shops were still closed. There wasn't even a queue for checking in Keiron's rucksack. People were leaving their luggage unattended in spite of loads of warnings not to do so, and the man sitting next to us gave me full view of his huge 'butt crack' when he bent over to pick up his news paper from the floor. Ugh.

Keiron and I were both doing fine until time was up and he had to go through departures, which was quite emotional. I still find it hard to believe I won't see him until end of January 2005... this will be the longest we have ever been apart. I know this was our choice, but we also knew it was not going to be all that easy.

At least we'll be on the same continent from November onwards, when I fly from Havana to Santiago...

To make myself feel better, I engaged in some retail therapy (thermal underpants!) and emailed some of my friends to arrange meeting up with them when I'm in Belgium. At least there is a lot to look forward to, so I won't be sad for too long !