We sent our middle son off into the world at the beginning of last year. He had first appeared in this column as a toddler and featured in an early one as he managed to lock himself somehow in his bedroom and it was either break a window or dismantle the door to free him and the latter option was chosen as it should have been cheaper to fix.
But as many of you will know from your own experience, he had gone from a toddler to a boy to a young man in an instant and now it was time to leave the nest. He was off to Otago University to study surveying.