Stranded

Yes: Granny has been absent quite a while and a lot has happened. It has rained furiously at times - a lightening strike wiped out 2 computers and the router in her and her Beloved's house. The dread winter vomiting - noro - virus has passed through. There have been a procession of guests - none fortunately coincided with the heaviest rain or the virus though one pair of guests were unable to come because of their own infection. One of the two kids didn't survive the cold wet weather, despite four hourly bottle feeding by Granny and Beloved. Granny finished her book - on the one unplugged so not destroyed computer: it has had pretty favourable comments from her selected readers but needs much editing.

And now this: volcanic ash. As luck would have it, Granny's long-dead twin sister's family - beloved nephew, nephew's wife, two great-nephews and infant great-niece - are visiting. So is beloved son and his two daughters. Ten people in the house, in other words, all expecting to go back to England, either last week or early next, including Granny herself who is scheduled to return there to help a friend with a very sick husband clear out her about to be sold house. And all stranded. Lovely as it is having these particular visitors it does feel a bit like having prepared to run 15,00 metres and suddenly finding yourself committed to a half-marathon. The cooking! - and of course none of the five children apart from the omniverous baby will eat the same things... The tidying. The washing. .. etc etc etc. And there are only so many excursions to be found on a not very big island. But at least the families are not stuck in a hotel, let alone an airport, like most of the people in the same predicament - 20,000 of them in Tenerife alone; more than 4000 of them here. If the ash stays put - as it seems to be doing - will the government send ships to rescue them? Granny's nephew is a teacher. A lot of the other stranded people are teachers. The Easter holidays see more people on holiday simultaneously than any other season. It's not just the stranded holiday-makers have problems.

An adventure; kind of. Granny's sense of adventure though is severely curtailed by less welcome import, by the charming one-year-old, of a cold which sets eyes not noses streaming, but otherwise results in sore throats heads and general malaise. She is surveying what she is writing here out of very sore eyes.

WHEN WE ALL GET OUT OF HERE? When will the visitors get back to their homes and families? The children are already saying plaintively: we want to go home. Will Granny ever dare stay away from England while the volcanoes are erupting? But if she does stay there when she does get back at last, when will she get to see her Beloved?

There are lots of worse problems in the world she knows. Once her head clears she'll feel less sorry for herself.

Judging by the state of her blog stats, plunged low as a result of her silence, few people will read this Just as well. Greetings to those friends who do come by. 'Sta luego.