The day before I leave (mega early) for Ireland and things are not quite as planned. My fathers brother has died suddenly in England so I may have to do an about turn early and come back with my father for the funeral. They were identical twins so the loss is even more poignant in a way. Billy and Bobby. Although seas apart they aged identically with the same familiar tone of voice and the same little movements and turn of their head. How odd life will be for my father without him.
On a more frivolous note, after two days of half term and the inevitable squabbling I have almost lost my voice from shouting at the children (day 1 is always the worst and then they settle down). Let’s hope it holds up enough to speak in the four meetings I have lined up as that could render it a complete waste of time. I have also an extra child to look after today due to a crisis over a horrendously sad access battle between friends and will later have to offload them all to get to Laurence Rushbys PV event tonight (Laurence has stretched red ribbon around the Salisbury Arts Centre for her Lifelines show and my youngest who is going through a rebellious stage is bound to drag them down if I let her within a mile of it).
What started off this week as a carefully laid out plan for the journey has been superseeded by the much bigger and more chaotic issues of life itself. How things can change in a matter of hours.
