Pass a tissue....damn just give me the whole box...

Lassie.......the lyrics of 'Lean on Me'......funerals......good report cards.....onions..... so what can all of these things possibly have in common?

The ability to reduce me to tears......

...and not the pretty kind of sweet tears....but the ugly kind of tears that result in red puffy eyes that take days to settle down, the ones that result in uncontrollable sounds emanating from your mouth.....the ones that leave you breathless, exhausted and sobbing through a massive headache!!

So tomorrow Miss 14 leaves for Japan....the first of our girls to travel overseas without mummy and daddy, the first of our girls to be away for more than a two night local camp with school....

And I am sure that I will turn into a blubbering mess at the point of farewell at the airport.....if not earlier ;-)

I've googled a few tips on how to hold back the tears.....here's a few gems from wikihow
http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Yourself-from-Crying

1.  swallow saliva and bite your tongue
2.  blink a few times then look into the light...this will make the pupils constrict and keep the tears from falling
3.  Do a maths problem in your head...emotion comes from the right side of the brain.  Doing a simple addition and subtraction activates the left side of your brain and can circumvent the emotional response you're having 
4.  Puff up your cheeks and hold your breath
5.  Fake a yawn 
6.  Pinch yourself (but not enough to hurt yourself!) 

So please spare a thought for me tomorrow as I stand at the airport mentally calculating the sum of 3475 and 2954 whilst holding my breath and biting my tongue and at the same time yawning whilst blinking into the light after I pinch myself......

I'll let you know if it works.......

And yes...I have tears typing this.....!!!!!