I never thought I’d be one to complain about an extra holiday, but that was before the volcano dramaramas. Instead of gaining a week, I lost one. All the work planned for the six days we got stuck (which makes it sound as though as though we were in an airport terminal, instead of the rather nice Club Med Hammamet in Tunisia) was out the window. Ditto other stuff, like children’s haircuts, school shoe buying and finally getting around to locating the maternity trousers in a cupboard/bag/wardrobe somewhere in our house. How much my life is planned and organised to the minute surprised me, having previously pinned myself as a freewheelin’ type. Guess there’s only so much spontaneity in a life filled with children, husband, and house overflowing with dirty clothes and washing up.

Which is all a very roundabout way of saying how nice it was to get home. Cup of tea, potter around the garden to take in the new leaves on the lilac, and a couple of loads of washing later, and it felt as though we’d never been away. And, the icing on the cake, a present from the Secret Post Club.

It was sent by blogger Billysu’s. A folder of gorgeous writing paper, a pretty glass-beaded bracelet and a DVD. This very generous lady must know we recently invested in a DVD player (I know, only about seven years too late…).  The film was the Oscar-nominated Fly Away Home, starring The Piano’s Anna Paquin and a bearded Jeff Daniels. Spookily appropriate, don’t you think, as a gift for someone who’d flown home hours before, after worrying all week she and the family wouldn’t be able to for months?

The film is about the star, 14-year-old Amy, falling for a clutch of orphaned geese. Problem is, Amy is the first sentient being they see, so they think she’s their mother. And when winter comes, and the geese have to emigrate south from Canada to warmer climes, there’s no flying version of mum to teach them what to do. So father and daughter take to the skies in a microlight and lead the way.

To add to the tears, at the beginning of the film Amy loses her mother in a car crash. Amy was involved in the same crash, and when her father appears beside her hospital bed, it’s the first time she’s seen him in years. He takes his understandably shocked and silent daughter back to his home in Canada, where he’s living with his new partner. Stepmum isn’t exactly warmly welcomed, and until Amy discovers the geese, it’s all tension and teenage angst.

All comes good, Amy prevents a game warden from clipping the geese’s wings by bombarding him with popcorn, and it’s a visual delight from start to finish.

So thank you, Billysu, for such a lovely welcome home. Now to mop the kitchen floor, catch up on thank you letters (your paper will come in very handy) and stock up the fridge and freezer. I think I need a holiday…