I’m slightly ashamed to admit that, as usual, I landed on my feet (a big thank you to the poor tired gods who spend all their days looking after me and mine). Stuck in Barbados! I really don’t think there could be a better place to be marooned.  Think Robinson Crusoe, but surround him with branches of Diamonds International, dress him in a polo shirt in this season’s pistachio green, invite him to loads of parties and stick a large rum punch in his hand.

My lovely friend couldn’t have been more charming about having us to stay for an extra six days. It was fantastic to have more of a chance to catch up – the originally planned ten days was far too short.

Barbados is a paradise on earth, but for those who live there year-round there are disadvantages – the cost of living, and particularly of food, is very high indeed. A lot of food is imported from the US but, even so, if Barbados’s cows are having a bit of an off day, there’s not much milk available. Anywhere. The joys of island life.

My friend didn’t bat an eyelid, however, at the considerable extra expense and inconvenience of guests who have no foreseeable departure date, and was wonderfully kind and welcoming to us all, even when we put all the breakfast cereal back in the cupboard instead of the fridge, and it was full of ants by morning.

All Bajans have fridges as big as houses, and everything, but everything, goes in them to protect from the heat and humidity. By the end, we were pretty well trained – though I was going a bit far when I put the insect repellent in the fridge.

No repellents worked, though, even lovely cool ones – we have mosquito bites ON our mosquito bites. But, as usual, there is a silver lining – Child Two is doing a project on the Black Death so I have taken some snaps of her very own leg, which looks like a perfect text-book example of bubonic plague.

 Of course we chipped in at the supermarket and also took my friend out for a few meals, which I’m hoping lovely Richard Branson will compensate us for. I did think this would be covered by my travel insurance, which I bought in a flurry just before we left. I was sure I’d printed off a copy and kept vaguely looking around for it when the ash drama was at its height, but of course it wasn’t until we were finally packing to go that I found it and discovered that I’d got the cheap kind which doesn’t cover flight cancellation. I do remember thinking, ‘flight cancellation? But why would a flight ever be cancelled?’ Doh!

One stroke of luck was that I booked our travel tickets through www.dialaflight.com. Normally I would have just got them direct from the Virgin website. This time, my gods were working overtime. I found dialaflight via Google, thought they looked good and  and then booked the tickets over the phone, which I have never, ever done before (Mr X was the family travel agent in days of yore) and was impressed with the cheerful, speedy service, which even included a call the day before to make sure I hadn’t forgotten we were going!

Dialaflight really came into their own, though, when I received a terse text from Virgin the day before we were booked to fly home, abruptly cancelling the flight. Of course, I was well aware by then of the troubles in Europe and was braced for more or less anything. I immediately rang dialaflight and within five minutes I was booked on the first available flight back – 24th April. Obviously, I knew there could be a lot more thrills and spills involved, but the dialaflight lady said, ‘if that flight goes, you’ll be on it,’ and so it proved. It took just one call (though I admit I did ring them one more time before flying just to make sure, only because I was getting a bit nervy, it wasn’t necessary). All over the island, I heard tales of people ringing BAA and Virgin constantly and getting nowhere, and almost all the other ash refugees I met had later departure dates. There was a rumour that one Virgin flight left before mine, with a load of VIPs on it. We were all pretty jealous of that. But dialaflight really did me proud. If I’d just booked via the Virgin website, I’d be a lot more stressed than I am. A friend in South Africa has been ringing, emailing and visiting the SAA offices constantly for nearly ten days – how awful that must be.

By the way, I’m not getting a sausage from dialaflight for mentioning them – though they can certainly pay to advertise chez moi if they like – I am just genuinely very grateful to them for getting us home.

More on the holiday tomorrow – jetlag permitting ….

Rules of the meme

Respond and rework

Answer questions on your own blog

Replace one question

Add one question

Tag 8 people

1. What are your current obsessions? Swine flu! No, no, don’t think about that ….well, probably my gorgeous iPhone which, like any new love, has its own tricksy ways which I’m trying to negotiate. For instance, if I change the password to see my on-line phone bill (incidentally, downloading emails in Disneyworld cost me £219!!!) I then can’t send emails from my phone. Go figure.

2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often? All my Uptown Jeans are in the wash together, a big mistake, akin to having the President, Vice President and leader of the opposition (do they have one in the US?) on board Airforce One at the same time. I don’t know how I allowed this to happen. Luckily, I spent a fortune in Jigsaw only yesterday buying what a friend described as ‘another of your draggy cardigans’ - in this case, a long, linen, waterfall number, which I optimistically hope will cover up the dodgy bits while enhancing the whole, and making me look two inches taller into the bargain. I think this will take over in the temporary absence of the Uptown Jeans team.

3. What’s for dinner? Gawd, a good question. Sainsbury’s fire-eater chicken is out. Not sure what Child Two can swallow, with her barbed wire throat. Neither Child likes soup. Mashed potato?

4. Last thing you bought? The Jigsaw draggy cardigan. Oh, all right, I bought two – the off-white and the mid-blue. But very useful!

5. What are you listening to? Downloaded Tracy Chapman from iTunes. Brings back memories of Sri Lanka with Mr X, and the train up to the tea plantations, with little children running along behind us, waving, and the fields of tea, in every shade of green, spread out like huge patchwork quilts over the billowing hills.

6. What five items could you not leave the house without? Keys, lovely iPhone, Maybelline Shinilicious lip gloss (much more reasonable than Juicy Tubes and better in my view), book – currently White Tigerby Aravind Adiga for my book club, if it was just for me it would be Kate Morris’s Seven Year Itch, probably a child or two and a handbag full to bursting with totally essential rubbish.

7. Favourite holiday spots? Actually I love my back garden.

8. Reading right now? NHS Direct Swine Flu owners’ guide.

9. Four words to describe yourself: acute, anxious, author, attractive (well, a girl can hope).

10. Guilty pleasure? Worrying, loving, eating.

11. Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak? This post by Nicola had me in stitches. Also Laura and Lulu.

12. First spring thing? The cat trying to eat my daffodils.

13. Planning to travel to next? The doctor’s surgery!

14. Best thing you ate or drank lately? Had some of the new Cadbury’s choc peanuts the other night – a bit disappointing. Best was probably from my gorgeous Orla Keily box of chocs – the double chocolate truffle was yuu-uum.

15. When did you last get tipsy? A little bit last night, trying a new Sicilian Chardonnay from Sainsbury’s in honour of Inspector Montalbano from the fabulous series by Andrea Camilleri – well, that was my excuse.

16. Favourite ever film? Still Some Like It Hot – sublime in all ways, though I nod to Rosiero’s choice of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, very sexy.

17. Care to share some wisdom? See my Reunion post yesterday – love is all you need.

18. If you could be someone famous, who would you be and why? You know, I really don’t think I’d swap with anyone. I’m quite happy in my own little way. I’ve got my girls, my writing, my job, my house and my True Love – pretty good going I’d say. And I don’t get papped looking like death.

19. What did your last text say and who was it from? “Purrrrrrrrrr”.

20. What is your favourite animal? Mme Bovary, the best little catty in all the world. I do love her so.

The eight people I am tagging are:

Littlemummy
Are We Nearly There Yet?
Family Affairs and Other Matters
Diary of a Desperate Exmoor Woman
Melrox
Some Mothers Do Ave Em
Mummy Has a Headache
Suburbia

1. What are your current obsessions? I’m trying to get obsessed with Twitter, but seriously failing to see the point. Ok, it’s like short blogging. But I’d rather blog long. Otherwise, it’s the same old same old obsession – True Love. Sigh.
2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often? At the moment, my Uptown Jeans from Boden. Was thrilled to be asked where they were from during my Disneyworld jaunt. As comfy as a pair of opaque tights, and doing quite a reasonable job of compressing the flab.
3. What was your favourite childhood meal? Chocolate peanuts. Plus ca change.
4. Last thing you bought?Went to Westfield yesterday with my lovely friend R, who introduced me to Uniglo. Why have I never been there before? Bought two lovely slinky T-shirts for £19! Amazing.
5. What are you listening to? Lily Allen, The Fear. So not me!
6. If you were a god/goddess who would you be? Venus, goddess of love. Would like nothing more than to waft around all day in strategically placed wisps of gauze cavorting with rufty tufty Mars.
7. Favourite holiday spots? Sweden, Italy, weekends in North Wales with lovely friend C.
8. Reading right now? When Will There Be Good News? Kate Atkinson. Just finished Wetlands by Charlotte Roche for my book club, yuck is so not a strong enough word.
9. Four words to describe yourself. Determined, dreamer, depressive, diverting (I hope)
10. Guilty pleasure? Aren’t they all?
11. Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak? My children, my friends, the Disney 7
12. Favourite thing to do? Snuggle
13. Planning to travel to next? North Wales – can’t wait.
14. Best thing you ate or drank lately? Pomegranite mohitos.
15. When did you last get tipsy? Last night.
16. Favourite ever film? Some Like It Hot
17. Care to share some wisdom? ‘Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you are right’ (Henry Ford).
18. Song you can’t get out of your head? Pussycat Dolls, Jay Ho
19. What one object would you save from a housefire? Ebony elephant from Sri Lanka.
20. What is your aim in life? To be happy – and get a UK publisher.

So, who to send this to next?

1.Splodge

2.English Mum

3. Rural Villager

4. Got your hands full

Part of the award is to reveal six fascinating facts about myself. And Hadriana’s Treasures also tagged me a while ago, so I shall kill two blogtags with one stone.

So hard to pick those little snapshots which will give you a fuller idea of the life of the Dulwich Divorcee. But, as ever, I shall try my hardest:

1. I had a photo taken yesterday for the jacket of my book, to be published this summer. Now this, I had always fondly imagined, would be just total bliss – people preening me until I looked my absolute best, arranging me with my finest angle facing forward, and taking one killer snap. In fact, it took forever, because, without my realising, I have changed. I suppose I still have a mental picture of myself as a 20-something sylph (never mind the fact that when I was actually 20, I was crippled with doubts about my appearance). Alas and alack the day, I have somehow morphed into a 40-something woman, with a number of chins and a wrinkly neck. And, frankly, I am quite chunky. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Never mind, there is a thing called Photoshop and, once I’d slipped the photographer an extra note or two, we managed a half decent result. I think. But maybe I am just deluding myself ….

2. I am now working four days a week at a local paper, which is great fun. Office life is very much the same as I remember it from pre-children days 400 years ago. For the first couple of days, I went around telling everyone what a wonderful atmosphere there was. Then they started to tell me how much they all hated the reporter with the squint. Then one of the lady journos was made redundant. Now I find out that someone else is about as popular as Osama bin Laden, and as easy to find after lunch. They’ve asked me if I want a job. Yay! Of course I do!

3. True Love started to read this blog. That’s why I barely mention him any more. I don’t think he’s still reading it, but just in case ……

4. I’m starting to write book 2, but finding it very hard going, what with work, the children and Other Things.

5. Mr X and I sometimes surprise ourselves by getting on all right. I think all my divorce-experienced friends are right, and we will end up being on good terms. Well, I hope so.