... or just keep us in Germany for days when we were meant to be flying back tomorrow. Bah!

Daughter intended spending the weekend back in the UK - she lives in Norway.

Let's not forget poor old jojo stuck in Italy.

thank you, I'll join the people 'stuck' in Germany and Norway sending 'bad words' over to the selfish volcano
or maybe not, 'it' may take a revenge and spit a huge-load more of ash for me to be stuck here longer

duly sending good vibes to the volcano:

The weird thing is, the sky here has looked crystal clear all day. The ash must be a long ways up for the sky to have been so clear and blue.

oh volcano, oh powerful one, we all love you, now please stop erupting so that jojo and river and everyone else can get home.

thank you.

(hope that works)

Methinks the Icelanders might well have reason to be giggling into their sleeves that the country that nearly shut theirs down is in a bit of a pickle from their volcano...though of course it's much worse for them living so close to the thing...

Neighbours stuck in Germany, but worse, a friend has children stuck in Hong Kong who were on route back from Australia - it was there first trip away without her and they are both lower secondary school, so she's gutted!

TO THE ICELANDIC PEOPLE.

We said CASH not ASH.

I nicked that from the Telegraph.

owwwwwch - that would so not go down well in Iceland....

I know. Sorry. It tickled me though.

I got a text joke today-"I went outside today to find pizzas, half-chickens and bottles of fizzy drinks falling from the sky-the fallout from bl***y Iceland!"

IN 1783 the eruption killed half of Iceland's livestock, and wiped out a third of the population due to famine.
Despite my joking, I am aware that we are merely irritated by air travel disruption, whereas many of them are displaced due to the volcano.

My hubby is still stuck in England and our car is still stuck at Malpensa airport

ok, I am not far from Milan, I could pick up the car and drive it to UK that way I am home and your car is back with you
(oh, I don't have the keys )

edit: I see from your signature that 'home' for you is Italy, in that case, I'll take the car to your husband in UK, I am home and he can drive back 'home'

We have stories of the terrible things that volcanoes can do all the time. I have a student volcanologist in my house............Kate is doing A level Geology. Lava rarely kills, as people get out of the way in time. However, clouds of CO2 and other gases that suffocate, mudslides and floods are the main culprits.
It's nice in my house.........very restful.

Actually, if this goes on much longer we are seriously considering plan B: me rescuing car from airport and driving to Calais or some convenient railway station in Europe mainland to pick him up. If so I will pm you!!
Trouble is, all the trains and ferries out of England are full at the moment so unless he swims across the channel he's still stuck.

I think it is slowly dawning on people that having no flights at all over Europe for the best part of a week (or more) is a mite more than "merely irritating". For the people who are unable to fly home it is at the very least an economic bombshell - staying in hotels they did not budget for and cannot afford, not getting home in time to start work on Monday and therefore potentially not getting paid or even (in some cases) losing their jobs. The schoolchildren returning from Easter holidays to start their exams will have problems. For those of us not directly affected there is the realization that our colleagues are stuck away and we will have to cover for them as best as we can. I would imagine the complete absence of air flights would have catastrophic effects on business and trade.

With a little thought the complete cancellation of all air travel over a wide area for a prolonged period can be seen to be a real disaster - for all of us.

Maybe I'm going to right way to get myself lynched here, but...

On the positive side, what lovely beautiful blue cloudless skies and sunshine we get when planes aren't zipping across our skies. I'm fairly sure I've read that all the additional vapour pumped out of planes helps 'seed' precipitation and make new, proper clouds...

Iceland haven't seen this much white dust since Kerry Katona was doing their advertising....

if you do drive up to UK, I am in Turin, happy to meet you somewhere 'on the road'

I have tried to go back home on train but it was a total of £650 for me and my son (I don't have that spare cash at all, not even on a credit card!)

Jojo, I hope you get home soon. Skies will hopefully clear soon over Europe.There is more news at 3pm today. It is a mess for travellers. Hugs.

I think one of my friends from school might be stranded in Florida. Not too much of a problem for her, but her older sister is in the year above us and has only three weeks before she goes on study leave for GSCEs, so lessons for her will probably be quite important!

Yes, and there is also all the stuff freighted around the world - food, textiles, machine parts, animals, medicines etc....

I have worried for a long time about the immense growth of air traffic and travel over the past 10-20 years. We take a lot of things for granted and increasingly cheap and easy air travel has been one of them.

We are starting to see how one 'act of God' can have a huge and devastating knock-on effect. We have become so bound up in the minutiae of life that we have stopped being able to see the bigger picture..so I am not sorry, I have to say, that things like this are making people sit up and take notice.

I've just been on the BKA Spring course and we had three lovely Hungarian teachers over for it - and of course they can't get back home..

It's slightly off topic, but what I really wish is that it was easier to get cheap train tickets. I've got quite good at spotting and getting bargains, but it's not easy : whereas cheap plane tickets are so much easier to get. Perhaps one day train travel will have the plethora of cheap deals planes currently enjoy...

it's more than a little terrifying, actually

THe experts are saying that it shouldn't be for a prolonged period though. Only a few days at most.
However, the cloud is now blowing back over Britain this evening.

Oh, lovely. I must admit though, I haven't seen anything remotely resembling an ash-cloud in the skies...either I haven't been looking hard enough, or I'm lucky enough to live somewhere not affected by it!

I haven't either. Someone was saying this morning that it had already passed over us, which means that it must have passed over you as well.

There was a helicopter out above us earlier, but I couldn't actually see it so I don't know if it was the police one or something different.

They didn't postpone the latest Ashes to Ashes episode though, in sympathy!

I saw a helicopter earlier today at dancing! It disrupted the entire ballet class, actually



somebody on Coronation Street said something about either volcanoes or Iceland last night that was a bit "eek", I remember my dad having a right giggle about it!

It's just occurred to me that half our staff/postgrads are at a conference out in America which finishes tomorrow.

My brother and his family live in Switzerland, and it would be much greener, and very easy to travel there by train. However, it is just too expensive, at least twice as much as flights.

I'm _meant_ to be going to Singapore on Monday and I think my superviser is still in China.
(Still if it gets cancelled it will please the uni chamber choir as it means I won't be missing two rehearsals!)

My mum is stuck with me in Italy for the time being. Good for me though - more babysitting opportunities!

Does anyone know if this problem is only affecting jet engines and turbo-prop which of course suck air in the front in vast volumes?

I was wondering if any old piston-engined aircraft could make it through the level of dust that is over the UK at the moment. Bring out your old Dakotas!

Natures way of reminding us we don't rule the world - it rules us! I've not seen any cloud. Just uncharacteristic sunny weather and warmth!

Heart goes out to people in Iceland and those stuck abroad. Jojo, I'm sorry to say this is what you get for being better at violin than me

As has been mentioned previously - I enjoyed a nice, clear, blue sky. I can't remember when I last saw that... and I'm quite an observant type when it comes to nature - that was how the sky *should* look

Do you think they'd offer me money off next year's tuition in exchange for a bed for the duration?
What about if I offer my parent's much more comfortable home rather than mine?

I think if you want to go hang-gliding, you're fine!

I think you'd still have issues with any engine as the air filter could get clogged up with dust/ash.

'careful'

I am still hoping my flight might be able to take off tomorrow evening, things don't look promising but we'll see.
My father says if my flight is cancelled and I can't get booked on a flight before saturday he'll give me his car to drive to UK, problem is:
his car is a 15 year old Fiat Panda which does not look nor feel very 'together'
1) it will take me 2 days to get to uk with THAT car
2) if I make it at all!
3) what if there' no ferries to take me across the water (ie all being full up already), I don't have money to spend on a hotel, my father has none left to give me (he's been forking out for me for past week already!)

I am a bit confused when people say they haven't noticed ash cloud in the sky. What about the very unusual haze in the sky that has been there since it started? And the spectacular orange sunsets? Is that just down here?

juniper, I think the ash cloud is having 'effects' on you, you are repeating yourself
(probably an 'evil keyboard' thing...)

ooops you edited that QUICK

Drat it I tried to amend before anyone noticed, you too quick for me!! Lol. It seems to always happen when I try to add smilies on my smartphone...... Weird!!

Matthew's dad yesterday claimed to have ash all over his car. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the car constantly seems to have a layer of dirt on it...

I have a couple of icelandic facebook friends (one of whom is a geologist - an interesting job at this sort of time). She's been posting a lot of pictures of the eruption, but the impression I get is that because of the prevailing winds and population spread on Iceland, flights are still getting in and out, and the vast majority of people are fine!