An Attitutde of Gratitude - No.2

This has to be a quick post... I'm off to the dentist to have my broken filling fixed.

I am grateful for the wonder of modern flight.  Yes, despite the fact that planes were grounded due to volcanic ash, one has to wonder at our ability to board a flight in one place and arrive (sometimes many hours later) in another place.  It never ceases to amaze me.

My grandfather travelled to South Africa from Great Britain by ship and it took him weeks!  He met and married my grandmother in South Africa just after the First World War.  His parents never got to meet their new daughter-in-law or their seven grandchildren.  It was too far and far too expensive to travel as we do to-day.

So, for all of you who have become so accustomed to travelling around the world quickly (and cheaply, believe it or not), this is my reminder to you of how things used to be.

If you haven't done so yet, you might like to give thanks for this wonderful 'tool' we take so for granted in our lives.  We have only to look at how the grounding of planes has affected everyone (commerce, industry and the man in the street) to begin to understand what it would be like if we weren't able to travel so freely anymore.

Goodness only knows how these past few weeks are going to affect the economy of the world.  This ain't over yet.

April Blackbird

Great news!

Our Palma chickies are going to be making the marathon trip home this weekend.  It's going to take them 44 hours and I'm sitting here thinking that I'm very glad I'm not them.

Let's hope there are some good (new) movies for them to watch.  I have no idea which airlines they're flying on, but I do know they have a couple of stops along the way with a long stopover at Heathrow.

It will be interesting to hear their comments on the airlines when they have a chance to sit down again.  There are always 'hotspots' in the airports so Arabella might be persuaded to pass a running commentary on service, food, movies and that old 'dogbone' leg room.

On a separate issue, I'm in the process of icing the Christening cake.  The almond paste is on (thank you UK chickie) and the fondant will go on tomorrow.  I've pinched a tiny bit to make some very tiny, thin 'anonymous' flowers.  Coloured some very pale pink, yellow, blue and lavender.  Once I've finished with them I'll have to decide whether or not to make a few rose buds to go with them.  I'm running out of time as the Christening is next week and not the week after.

Talking of which, we have just discovered that we're going to have to battle the St Patrick's Day Parade crowd for parking in the city.  There are lots of road closures too...  the train is beginning to look quite appealing.

April Blackbird