Raisins.
In an article I was reading they mentioned, casually, 'Of course the '75 d@rk-ey3d v1rgins' described as the reward for su1c1d3 b0mb3rs has also been translated as '75 dark ra1sins''. Oh please, please let that be the case. That as they enter the aft3r-life they are just handed a plate.

It has been a tense week - on my part at least. Both my daughters, jet-settily, had gone abroad .. separately .. for the WEEKEND. To me in my out-of-touch world that still seems amazingly glamorous. One had gone to the S. of Fr@nce to stay in a friend's palatial v1lla which was about to be sold as the father had made one too many unwise investm3nts. And the other had gone to the S. of It@ly to stay in a friend's palatial v1lla. Multi-cultur@l Britain does have a few plus points in the form of old schoolfriends.

But this meant they were TRAVELLING on trains and buses to various airp0rts ... scarily. I left telet3xt news on permanently in every room and made them ring me at every stage. 'I'm HERE in Italy and I'm FINE'. 'Oh, thank god, well, have a lovely ...' 'No, there is one thing .. they closed the road behind us as we drove out onto the peninsula. And now we're waiting to see which way the forest fire goes .. it's not THAT close'. 'Aaaarrgh!'. 'Don't be silly Mummy, it came up to the garden that other year I was here and we were fine. We went and sat in that beach bar. Anyway I may not be able to call again as it will probably destroy the power lines'. Rings off cheerfully. It's true that fires are a normal feature of that stretch of coast and everyone owns a boat so they can zoom out to sea if necessary .. but still ...

On Sunday my son rang in the evening. 'I just wondered .. what does a b0mb going off sound like?' 'Why, WHY?'. 'Well there was this massive bang a few minutes ago and it sounded quite close'. 'It's a sort of 'whumph' not a sharp noise at all'. 'Yes, that would be it'. 'Oh, no ... was it in the direction of P@ddingt0n Stat1on. Your father's train will have just got in?' 'Err .. it might have been but I thought I heard someone come in downstairs so perhaps he's back.' 'Run down and look and ring me at ONCE if he is there.' Ten minutes of intense worrying and fruitlessly checking telet3xt newsfl@sh pass until I ring desperately. 'Have you heard anything?' 'What? Oh, sorry ... he was here and we've been discussing getting a pizza.' 'FOR F.CK'S SAKE! I've been going through hell, panicking.' 'Look, I said I'm sorry and I've got to go now.'

So it turned out to have been a 'c0ntrolled expl0sion', probably of some Austral1an tourist's hand luggage, and both the girls are safely back and the fire stopped well up the hill side and they both had a lovely time. But I have somehow managed to spend large parts of the past few days under mental circumstances of extreme terror. Is this just the normal result of being a wife and mother ... or should I loosen up and get a grip? Preferably both at the same time.
- posted by Iris @ 7/26/2005 11:56:00 PM comment