I hate volcanoes # 2

We have cancelled the first 10 days of our planned trip to the UK, because there is no likelihood of flights to London for the next few days. We will still go to Sydney tomorrow, not to connect through Singapore to London, but for a week's "holiday" with Josh and Jen. He turns 38 on Anzac Day.

We have rebooked to the UK on April 30th and if this flight actually occurs, we can start our tour from Edinburgh ( but will miss Glasgow and the drive through western Scotland to Skye). If this plan fails we will try to rebook for May 10th and pick up our trip from Dublin ( now missing all of Scotland and the driving through southwestern Ireland!!). But we do go on to Paris from Dublin, with the tour of the Somme battlefields and would still have our 3 weeks in London with day trips to Portsmouth, Bath, Oxford, Cambridge and York. So it could be quite an exciting holiday just not as comprehensive as we had hoped for.

However, if May 10th doesn't eventuate either, we will cancel the whole thing! We are quite miserable about all of this - who would have thought 18 months planning could be brought undone by a bloody volcano? And of course, we have already lost money - train fares, deposits on hire cars and accommodation etc - and as more bits of the trip are cancelled so we lose more money.

At least we have been waiting it out in our own home - not camped on the floor of an airport somewhere, but even so, it is very disappointing. A friend is stranded in Spain and although he has a bed, it is in a flea infested hostel, and it's raining so he's not really enjoying himself.

If we do ever get to Europe, our "animal sitters" are happy to extend their stay in our house, so that we can add on Scotland and Ireland to the end of the planned stay in London. We could theoretically continue the trip into July. But this is getting into high season and costs will rise. so we're not sure whether we will extend or not. C'est la vie!