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The kindness of friends

What did I say last week about hating the pre-holiday rush to get jobs done - all those things we have put off doing for months, that suddenly have to be done by the deadline of the holiday departure date? Actual HDD was today - as intended, pre visitation from fire-services, in the middle of the night last week and lovely men in reflector jackets who put out the blaze in our roof:


A fire is quite a humbling experience - first there is the loss of control; the nagging worry that you failed to remain calm in a crisis; the realisation that you had all your priorities wrong - the importance of holiday planning, possessions, organisation, all evaporate in a puff of smoke and all that is left is family and the fact that everyone, including four legged friend is safe; then, there is the reaction of wonderful friends, who come in the dead of night to rescue the littler, frightened members of the family and whisk them away to somewhere warm for hot chocolate and cuddles, then feed us and house the one of us who was too scared to come home; and friends, who through phone texts and face-book, express their love and concern; and friends who spend an evening helping to sort water-damaged books, clothes and toys; and friends - our builders - who go beyond the call of builderly duty, to sweep, fix the imense hole in the roof, replace ceilings and plaster, all within a week - quite astonishing, and, in case you thought it, not at all due to a sense of guilt, as the fire had nothing to do with their being here.

Where once their was a ceiling ...

And then there's the daughter who fails her driving test two days later, through lack of concentration at a roundabout - What were we thinking? Why didn't we cancel? Of course she wasn't going to stand a fair chance of passing? Not after the pyrotechnics and its aftermath of sleeplessness and frenetic activity at home? Instead of frustration and disappointment, she got a lot of sympathy, more cuddles and a quick rebooking of a new test date.

HDD now rescheduled for later this week - after visit from electricians,  and compilation of inventory of destroyed and damaged furniture, bedding, clothes, toys (big Tiggrrr saturated and sitting rather forlornly on soaked sofa in skip), cameras, CDs and DVDs, music manuscripts etc etc etc ... The tidy up goes on and on ... and I procrastinate, trying to put it off when I've had enough ... or when I have decided that the ironing I must do before the new HDD, can come on holiday with us and either be ironed there, or create an 'ensemble' (... going to France after all!) of fashionably crumpled attire.

Friends - thank you.





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